Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People

In light of what happened in Charleston, South Carolina I am compelled to conclude the current series on apolologetics with an age old question. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Some might argue that the Christian faith is merely an excuse to escape the harshness of reality. Is this any more reasonable than arguing that atheism is a mere excuse to escape the harsh reality of judgement and the thought of an eternity spent without and apart from God? The more important point, though, is that the oft-repeated criticism that bad things happen to good people says nothing at all about God, and everything about man. Yet pain is not mere suffering, but also a warning sign and a way to protect us against danger. That something my hurt is undeniable, and that we all feel some sort of pain at some point is inevitable, but whether this pain is our doing or God’s is something entirely different. The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and ever compassionate God allows mankind to suffer, just as he allows us all sorts of things, because we have the freedom to behave as we will. But he has also provided a place with the greatest contentment we can imagine if only we listen to him, listen to his Son, and listen to his church.

As to the specific issue of pain, suffering and loss, C.S. Lewis, watched his beloved wife die of cancer, put it this way: “But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” God’s plan is for us to return to him, and lead the best possible life on earth; sometimes we need to be reminded of our purpose, and pain is a sharp, clear tool to achieve that purpose. A needle may be necessary to prevent a disease; nobody welcomes nor do they enjoy the vaccination, but it potentially prevents a far greater suffering, just as what may seem like even intolerable pain or loss now will lead to far greater happiness later.

C.S Lewis also wrote: “By the goodness of God we mean nowadays almost exclusively his lovingness…By love, in this context, most of us mean kindness – the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing…we want in fact a Father in heaven whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”

What Lewis stated above applies more today than when Lewis was writing. If I want something, runs the current expression, I need something; and if I need something, thus I must have something. To the Christian, however, God knows our needs better than we do, and also knows our wants and our needs are distinctly singular occurrences.

But God did not leave us here to suffer pointlessly. Our loving and merciful God has a perfect plan to use that suffering to accomplish His purpose. He uses pain, suffering and loss to draw us to Himself. Did not Jesus say, “in this world you shall have tribulation (John 16:33).”? Miseries and grief are not unusual occurrences in life; they are part of what it means to be mortal in a fallen world. It is in time of pain, despair and bereavement that we reach out to him. God proves to us that our faith is real through the pain, suffering and death that are inevitable in this life. Now, how we respond to this pain and suffering is determined by the genuineness of our faith. Finally, God uses pain, suffering and loss to take our eyes off this world and to put them on the next. Fore, the pain and sufferings we endure and which seem so terrible “are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).