In my first blog, I shared my struggles and the promises that are helping me walk through cancer without knowing whether I will live 1 year or 10 years. Next I want to look at possible reasons for having evil in the world or “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This is a bit harder because the topic goes beyond my feelings and God’s promises for me personally into a topic great minds have explored over the ages.

The World is a Rough Place

Ever since the first humans decided their way was better than God’s way, the world has been a rough, broken place. In my mind, two things contribute to this:

1. FREE WILL – God gave the first humans in Genesis the freedom to choose right or wrong. We have a choice to follow God’s right ways or plow our own stubborn, disobedient path. Unfortunately, like Adam and Eve, we all have a tendency to choose wrong now and then. Jesus supports this idea of free will when He says in John 7:17: “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Deuteronomy 30:19 is another verse supporting free will. God does not want a bunch of robots as His followers. He desires us to follow Him with our hearts and minds and choose what is right willingly.
2. PEOPLE ARE SELFISH. We only need to watch a baby pursue its own needs to know selfishness is rooted within all of us. This is not always bad or evil because we need to take care of ourselves. In Genesis 1:28, God charges mankind to have dominion over the earth and creatures on it, which seems to require some altruism and some selfishness.

   But Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” I have seen this bottom-line selfishness many times in my own life and the lives of others.

The average person is altruistic in many of their daily motives, so if we really consider it, the world actually runs pretty well and in line with God’s intentions for His creation. It’s just we all can and do make selfish choices with big consequences for the ones we love. On a grander scale, FREE WILL and SELFISHNESS have yielded atrocities though-out human history. For me, this sadly makes the most sense to me in explaining the brokenness of the world around us.

It gives some explanation of major sadness such as World War I and II, the related genocide of the Jews and other genocides down through the ages. There have been famines due to human selfishness and kidnapping kids in Africa to further a political cause. The fact the world is a rough place explains religious radicals who killed thousands on 9/11/2001.

Why doesn’t God intervene?

In the face of these selfish rulers who start wars or withhold food to create a famine or attempt to eradicate those with different religious beliefs, we naturally ask “Why doesn’t God intervene?” One of my “go to” explanations is that God doesn’t just look at our physical life and our happiness here on earth. He sees our next life and eternity when all we can see is the here and now.

On a more personal topic, I’m definitely grappling with a diagnosis of a year or two to live and no assurance that time will be comfortable. One might say “what good is coming out of that” or “why is God asleep at the wheel?” Yet, it does make sense to me that God is more concerned with my character, how I handle this trial, and my eternal existence than my physical comfort.

Corinthians 3:16-17 says:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

It was apparent Jesus was about much more than physical comfort while here on earth. All but one of his disciples (John) died a martyr’s death – not the kind of stuff one would expect if He was concerned about His follower’s earthly comfort.

There are many promises that God knows the hairs on our heads, as a Father he will not give us a snake but good things and that He cares for the birds of the air so He will care for us. It makes sense when considering the tough times we go through that these promises do not only focus on our physical well-being but also our spiritual well-being and eternal destiny.

Some suffering is to show God’s goodness and power.

John 9:1-3 tells a story about this:

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.  And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

My wife Shirley lost her leg when she was 24 years old in a boating accident. It was a busy Father’s Day on a lake near St. Louis. No drinking was involved but the boat driver did not know she was swimming into the boat after water-skiing. He put the boat into reverse and she was sucked into the propeller. Shirley felt a buzz on both legs and was shot out in front of the boat. Through the quick action of her friend Rhonda and a nearby stranger, she was rescued to the shore. Someone ran to their house on shore and called 911. An ambulance that “happened” to be in the neighborhood showed up within 4 minutes, stabilized her and she was off to the hospital. Shirley was a nurse so she understood the blood pressure readings from paramedics were very low.

She could have easily died that day. They amputated one leg and it took her a year to get comfortable with her prosthesis. Every few years she has to get a new electronic knee or custom-made socket for her leg – normally a tough process. She has regular phantom limb pain which is when the damaged nerves on the end of her amputated leg send shocks of pain. Most often these are manifested as the sensation of a screwdriver is being driven into the top of her non-existent foot. She gets skin rashes from her prothesis and really misses running and being able to play sports or go on long hikes.

After the accident, more than one person came to her and asked what sin was in her life to cause such an accident. Because Shirley was a “goody two shoes” (which I consider to be a compliment), she could not think of any unusual or major sins in her life. Those well-meaning but misguided friends continued to encourage her to seek God’s enlightenment as to what major sin she was not seeing. Shirley found this to be very offensive because, as Jesus said in John 9:1-3: It was neither that this woman sinned, nor her parents.

So why did an accident like this happen to such an amazing person as Shirley?

Shirley and I believe her amputation happened “so that the works of God might be displayed.” She considers her handicap as a platform from which to encourage others. Acquaintances and strangers sometimes pick Shirley out of a crowd to come over and share their physical or emotional hurts. She listens with true empathy and takes opportunity to share how Psalm 23 was an encouragement through the dark moments of losing her leg. She is occasionally invited to speak to large groups or given leadership positions from which she can share her story. Her bubbly attitude encourages others with problems to consider whether it is worth being grumpy over their own problems and instead be thankful they have two legs. So Shirley daily sees how her sadness many years ago was “so that the works of God might be displayed” in her.

In 2 Cor 12:7-9, the Apostle Paul talks about wrestling with God over his “thorn in the flesh.” We can speculate on what this thorn was, but no conclusion can be made. Paul, the author of a good portion of the New Testament, a dedicated follower of Jesus, had a problem he could not get rid of and he sensed or heard God say: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” So God may use our frailties, including Shirley’s being an amputee, as a way to display His power rather more than when someone is whole physically. “The material from which beauty forms it’s greatest work is often tragedy.” (Erwin McManus, The Genius of Jesus)

Some suffering is the consequence for questionable or wrong choices

It is easy for us all to grasp and accept natural consequences as a reason for suffering. We all make bad choices occasionally and for some of us, constantly. There are consequences and potential suffering for bad choices. For instance, if I choose to drink alcohol every night to the point of being drunk so that I can drown out pain or boredom in my life, I will become an alcoholic with all the negative baggage of that lifestyle. If I choose to drive like a banshee at high speeds, odds are I will eventually get a ticket or perhaps have an accident hurting myself and/or others. If I choose to ignore the needs of my wife/family and pursue my own agenda daily, my marriage will be less satisfying and may end badly.

In the Bible and Jesus’s example, God has set a moral course and consequences for mankind. The Scriptures have many verses that are “IF . . . THEN” promises. They point to the IF being our obedience to God’s commands and the THEN is we have good consequences. The reverse being true when we choose to go our own way = bad consequences. I believe within the bounds of these promises, He is content in many cases to step back and allow those consequences to flow. This is similar to parents who see little Johnny about to do something dumb but allow him free will and to learn from his mistakes.

Although it is sad and seems to some that God should intervene, we see this in the world around us every day. People are hurt by their own and other’s bad choices and the natural consequences.

Allowing versus Causing

I think it’s interesting and important to distinguish between God ALLOWING evil or hard times versus CAUSING these. My personal belief is that God does a lot of ALLOWING natural consequences versus always CAUSING hard times. This again goes back to FREE WILL. He created the universe with it’s natural laws and I believe He often lets those run their course even when a deadly hurricane or earthquake will result. Or when a dictator convinces his followers it’s right to attack a neighboring country and kill or subdue it’s inhabitants.

I must clarify that I am not a Deist or one who believes that God exists and created the world, but beyond that, God has no active engagement in the world except for the creation of human reason, which enables us to find God by doing good. I do believe God can and does choose to intervene in our lives at His good pleasure and there are many Scriptural promises of His guidance and goodness in our lives. He draws us to Him so that we may experience His goodness and truth and love. Just like the father in the prodigal son story, He comes running to us rather than we being forced to find Him.

Atheism

Some reconcile this tough question of why a good God would allow so much pain and suffering by simply denying God’s existence. Atheism is not a possibility for me since I cannot imagine how our astounding complex world and universe evolved over time through random mutations and natural selection. I’ll get into problems with the Theory of Evolution in a future blog, so check that out if you are struggling with this. But for the moment, we’ll keep things simple and say I won’t explain evil and pain in the world by denying God’s existence.

Conclusion

When we consider the ideas of a rough world, free will, selfishness, and God allowing things to happen versus intervening, we have a start on a theology or philosophy of why bad things happen to good people. Then we add natural consequences of sin, some suffering being opportunity for God to show His awesomeness, and evidence that God is less concerned about our happiness here on earth and more about our character.
These are my own “go to” answers and you must each find your own. Books are written on this subject so I haven’t put forth all the arguments or thoughts on this topic. My answers may be a bit off-center and some Bible scholars will poke for holes in my thoughts. That would be welcome since I want to grow, learn and get closer to the truth.