Why Do Bad Things Happen To "Good" People?

It's that time of year again - when you're preparing to eat a turkey that you're not really wanting to eat because you'd rather stuff your face with apple cider (as close as I ever got to hard liquor as an 8 year old) and broccoli casserole, but you do anyhow because, well it's Thanksgiving! Turkey's died for this day! It's also a time of confusion for a lot of people. Like, do I sing a Christmas carol because 103.5 is calling themselves our station for Christmas tunes? And yesterday I saw a car at the gym with antlers. Also Christmas lights are already up around the neighborhood...but to be fair they've been up all year (Is it just me who always looks down on those people until we have to start packing away the Christmas lights or untangling those suckers when they come out? Seriously, headphones on steroids.) Just all around a confusing time.

But for quite a few people it's a time where family starts to come together, talk and laugh and play pranks that only the holidays could make possible - but then there are those select few who take these days a different way. They begin to think about things, about life. It's a tender time that only a loving season can create. A couple years before I was saved this was me - except instead of taking a step towards an answer I crept back into music, video games, porn and cheap food. I didn't want to open the hole. I used generic ideas to create a barricade from God that kept me from having to deal with him. Today I wanted to deal with one of those question/statements.

"If God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people? It's not fair. I can't love a God who would do that. It says somewhere in that thick book called the Bible that God loves me. Then why let all these things happen to me?"
That's a fallacy that needs to be addressed here and now.

So a lot of people throw out, 'God is good', 'God is love', 'God created evil' but there's a sad degradation of the English language today that we don't know a quarter of what words actually mean. Words that were used to represent a fear of God, like awesome, now are used to describe a cheap pizza or a 1900*1600 resolution. Love - the word for something that is used to describe the deepest passion that you have with someone, something that goes beyond human instinct and drives you to take a bullet for that person is now used to freely when talking about a pair of shoes. We throw words around with such ease - but remember, God used words to form this earth. What we say has the power to change lives. So when people say, 'God is good' what does that really mean?

Good is described as something that's pleasant, agreeable and of high quality. Sounds legit. I mean that all matches up with what we know of good, right? Well that's how the world defines it - but what about the Bible? If there's really a word that describes what good is it'd be this one - God.

God is holy. Righteous. That means he's praise worthy. Without blame. Morally on the right side of the coin.

See, without God humans are at a place where we can't define what, 'good' and 'bad' are. There is no absolute (I read some stuff that I want to post on here but I'll save it for another post. Freakin' intense science that gets deep into atheists trying to prove some crazy stuff). But Christians know that God is our absolute. Without a higher power there is no good and bad. There are simply actions and reactions. So we're going to assume that there is a God for the rest of this talk and we're going to say that He is our standard of what is good in life and he gives us a level to live by which jumps right into my next point (how convenient.) - what is evil? If good is God then evil is essentially the opposite of everything that God is. And those are your definitions.

Another word that goes along with God is just. He follows the rules. Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins, right? Well why didn't God just say, 'Heck, I'm the head honcho! I love you all you can just come into Heaven! No need to sacrifice m'boy for you all.' That'd defy who God is, his very nature. He sticks to the things he's set in motion. If he didn't then we'd  be able to accuse him of not sticking to his word. But you might ask,
'Why have sin in the world anyway? Just create a perfect world and let us live awesome lives!'
Funny you say that because that's exactly what he did. See, if you check out Genesis 1: 26-31 we see that God created man in his own image, a spiritual image of perfection and in the last verse, just to add a little more bang to your buck, he said it was very good (and we remember what good is). So man was without sin, a perfect world. But he also gave man the choice to make certain decisions in his life (Proverbs 16:9, Genesis 2:19-20). The decision of right and wrong (which are different from good and evil. Something can be the wrong choice but not a sin/evil. Won't go in depth on it here.) was given to Adam. He made the wrong choice which, at that moment, let sin erupt through out the earth. (If you need more clarification and how Adam was without sin but still sinned, ask in a comment and I'll go deeper) Since God is just he kept to the decision of man. There was a punishment given because of a crime committed and because of who God is we have to live out that sentence.

That's not fair!
I know...if it were fair we'd be living a life completely apart from God, burning in Hell and that'd be the end of the story. That'd be fair. We've sinned and there's a punishment to be paid for that.
It'd be God saying, 'Follow these rules but in the end you're just going to suffer and go to Hell.'
But He doesn't.
He says, 'I'll pay your debt, man. In fact not only will I catch your bill, which is more expensive then you know, but I'm building a house up here for you and I've had my son, who's a carpenter, working on it for 2000+ years. Just accept my gift and it's yours.'

That sounds like a good God to me.

But I'm not going to sugar coat it - when you become a Christian it's not like everything becomes all lollipops and Guitar Hero, there are times where we still suffer. Talk to Job (well he's kinda dead but in a figure of speech way you should talk to him). That brother had it hard BECAUSE he followed God. Satan prayed on that man to the point of taking everything except his nagging wife and he STILL couldn't break Job. All because God wanted to prove a point and to teach Job.

See, God allows (Important word to remember: allows) things to happen to us to build us up. When we have it easy all our life then why do we even need God? Sometimes He brings us to our knees so that the only place we can look is up, to remember him. That may not seem fair to someone who doesn't believe but to a Christian the best time of our life is spent on our knees. You talk to any old Christian veteran and he'll agree that he wouldn't be where he is today if not for the challenges God put in his life.

God allows it to build us up.

And when we're not one of God's children? He'll use it the exact same way, to make us see that he really is Lord and to bring it to him.

(Though that's not the only way He can make your salvation happen)

But let's say you don't agree with God and you're a hard core atheist or diest or agnostic who just doesn't care about all that - two points.

1) If you say that God is evil because he won't purge the earth of evil then I ask this - if there is no God then you set the moral standard for life and you're the only one who can do something about it so why aren't you? I'm assuming you have at least a dollar to your name? Send that to Africa! Your whole being should be devoted to fighting this evil in the world. You can't accuse God of something and turn around and not do absolutely everything in your power to fix it. That's the essence of a hypocrite.

2) If you want God to take away all evil from the world, then what does that actually mean? You want him to take away world hunger, murder, rape, abuse and war? But where do you want him to stop? Because evil doesn't just stop there. We are sinners. We've lied, stolen and cussed. If God takes away evil then he takes away your will to choose, and he eliminates who you are. Are you willing to loose your ability to think? See most things we love are sin. Do you really want God to take them away from you?

So it's not so much a question of God letting things bad things happen to good people but more, why does he allow good things to happen to bad people? None of us are really good (equal to God). We need to be thankful for the blessings he gives us now and thankful that he doesn't decide to simply, make things fair.

Anyhow, I have a ton more I'd love to post on here but if you're reading this sentence then I applaud you being able to get through it all and I won't make you suffer through any more. I think I might do a part two - on the science of it all. Anyhow, I'd appreciate a +1 off Google or a share on Facebook and you can always follow me =) It's super encouraging to get feedback of any kind! Comments or questions? Just give me a holler!

In His name,

 - Parker