Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Whenever tragedy happens, the unbelieving world often uses these things as a way to argue against the reality of God. I read an article just now, and basically the question was, “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?”

I understand how hard it can be to understand why God would allow tragedy in this world, but who of us are really “good?” If God did not allow evil to exist in this world, would any of us be here at all? At what point do we draw the line and say, “this evil should not exist?”

Perhaps murder. If God were a loving God then murder would not exist. Well, Jesus taught that if we hate our brother in our heart, then we have committed murder. That might sound far-fetched to a non-believer, but is it really?

When we hold hate inside towards someone, it will come out one way or another. We will say horrible things or treat them in ways that can be harmful, and in so doing, we are killing them. We are killing their self-worth, their peace of mind, and causing them to believe a distorted image of themselves. Often, we are also killing their faith. Sure, they might be living, but how alive are they really? Hate is murder, and for that, I am also a murderer and I deserve to die — however, most people would call me a “good” person.

Does God Owe Us Life?

In all honesty, God is good to everything that ever takes a breath. Many would look at the death of a child for example and think that God must be evil if he exists. Does God owe life to anyone at all? No.

I’m going to get a bit personal here.

I had a miscarriage a few weeks ago. It’s not the first and it might not be the last. I’m lucky to have the two children I do have. Is God evil because that pregnancy did not last? We know these things happen often, so most would say no. What if that child had been born and then died? Would God be evil then? I would say no. Whatever small amount of time that child would have had would be better than nothing. It would not have felt “fair” to me, but God is not obligated to do what we think is “fair.”

Would it have been “good” or “fair” if my child lived a few years and then died? What if the child lived to be 80? Our lives are so short. At what point do we say that death came “too soon” really? Just because we have a life expectancy that we might feel okay about, death is a reality in this world, and life is not something any creature is entitled to.

When something that we see as good is taken from us, we call it evil. Why are we so entitled that we think these “good” things must be? Have we considered that maybe God is already being much kinder and “good” to us than we deserve? Have we considered that if God created a “perfect” world the way we would have it that NONE of us would be here?

Have we considered all the little pleasures we experience each day? We breathe. We smile. We embrace loved ones. We get to experience life, and even the hardest life is better than no life at all. The only thing any of us “deserve” is to go back to the abyss from which we came. THAT would be good — and even in that, God would be dealing graciously with us if we ever existed at all. It STILL would not be “fair.”

Bad things don’t happen to good people. There is none good but God, and He deems best that His children are raised in a fallen world. Who are we to ask God why He chooses to do things the way He does? And again, if evil did not exist, neither would we.

Instead of calling God evil or saying He does not exist because “bad things happen to good people,” we need to fall on our face and thank Him because everything we take for granted is proof of His awesome power and goodness!

This post is off-the-cuff, so I apologize if it’s not very well-written. I just think we can all benefit from taking some time to consider that God is good. It’s our own self-interests, ungratefulness, and sense of entitlement that’s the problem.