WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

As believers, I think we have all struggled with the question,

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

At least, I know I have.

I have experienced any number of scenarios over the years which have, at best, seemed unfair. When, where and what are not important here. We “have all been there.”

In one of the movie classics to end all movie classics, Jenny can be seen pummeling her broken down old house with rocks; the hated environment in which she had once been abused by someone she should have been able to love and trust. Suddenly, she slumps to the ground, and someone, (you know who) speaks to his audience.

“Sometimes I guess there’s just not enough rocks!”

Well, sometimes I guess there’s just not enough answers!

I was speaking to someone this week about this particular ‘quotient,’ and suddenly I thought of the most exemplary example of unfairness of all time.

The God of the universe took on flesh and became a man and walked on the earth, (two thousand years before a man from earth walked on the moon), the one and only creation of His kind who ever lived, and moved and breathed among us, whose motives were altogether unselfish and empathetic, and who, we are assured, knew no sin.

Scripture tells us that our Lord walked, and talked, and moved among us for the brief span of 33 years, and that, ultimately, sinful man took the sinless Jesus and put Him on trial, (the roles will surely be reversed one day) and had him flogged, and hung Him on a wooden cross to die.

Utter unfairness and inequity

The most singular example of a bad thing happening to a good person in the history of this or any other planet. And whereas, in the unfairness and inequities of our own lives, we may never get enough answers, in scripture after scripture God has provided us sufficient reasons that what our natural enemy meant for evil, our heavenly Father meant for good.

For you see, eons before Eve, and subsequently, Adam took a big ole wet juicy bite out of the forbidden fruit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit sat around a heavenly conference table, and developed an admittedly gruesome plan to save the world from the consequences of sin, and to satisfy the requirements of a righteous God.

Jesus raised His hand and offered to assume the guise of mortal man, and submit Himself to the whims of Satan and unrighteous mankind; so that all the world might be afforded the opportunity to escape the consequences of sin.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Too many times answers have eluded us. However, in this most singular example of all time, God has provided us more than enough answers to the question.

by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending