Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

  Sometimes life doesn't make sense. Sometime life knocks you down and runs over you and steps
on you., or those you love, or the innocent.  Yet we believe God is good and merciful. Jesus certainly
demonstrated God's attitude towards his children through his tender mercy and sacrifice.

 Yet sometimes we are overwhelmed. Never was this more apparent to me then in 2011. First my daddy
died leaving a giant hole in all of our lives. But people die and we must go on. But then our four year
old great nephew, Dusty, was brutally murdered and his body dumped in a sewage lagoon. How does one make
sense out of something like that? People talk a lot about 'closure'. But when things like this happen there
is never 'closure'. Closure will only fully happen in heaven.

  There are a few things that we must try to bear in mind. Of course, we all must bear pain in this life. But
God has promised in 1 Corinthians10.13 that he will give us the grace to bear it until that day when he
wipes every tear from our eyes, and there is no more pain and no more death.

  To understand the situation we face as we journey through this valley of tears, we must go back to
the beginning. God made a beautiful, perfect world, and walked with Man in the cool of the evening.
But we decided we wanted to do things our own way. So God gave us the thing we wanted: freedom.
God's way wasn't good enough. We wanted to be like God, and decide what was good and what was
evil. It was man's choices that brought sin and death and corruption into this world. It was not God's
choice, but ours. And as we see going back to Cain and Abel, our choices, good and bad,
 have an effect on others.

  God did not kill Dusty. A bad, evil person did. One day God will make everything right. Our anger
is misguided if we blame God for all the problems we have created through our sin. If everyone observed
the 10 Commandments, think of what a beautiful world we would have! We each must decide if we will
sow love into this world or if we will sow selfishness which is really the root of our problems.

Take the economy for instance. there are those who are highly skilled and educated and they cannot
find work in their field. They have worked so hard. It isn't fair. But is it God's fault?  God did not wreck
the economy, the selfishness of people wrecked the economy. A philosopher once said, "America will
destroy itself, if the people ever realize they can vote themselves money" The government takes money
away from people who work and gives it to a bunch of lazy bums who will not. It has run up huge deficits
wrecking the economy. God had nothing to do with it. Our anger and frustration should be aimed at the
government, and the judges and lawyers who run the 'disability' scam, where millions of able bodied
people sit on their butts while you have your money stolen in high taxes. The slob sitting on their porch
while you work, the blood sucking welfare crowd and the government that perpetuates it did this to the
economy, not God. Our government gives billions of dollars for corporate bail outs to the rich while
the hard working American struggles to stay afloat. It is wrong. The government taxing American
manufacturers to the point where they can't make a profit in the U.S. , Wal-Mart saving one penny will
outsource, trillions spent on undeclared unconstitutional wars. God didn't have anything to do
with any of this. People did!


 People are starving in many parts of the world. Is it God's fault? Take North Korea, for instance. Much
of the population is eating grass while the food is used to feed a million man army. God didn't do this.
Man did this. The innocent suffer, might is considered right. Our anger should be directed at death, Satan,
and sin, not a loving God. He gave us what we wanted: freedom.

 Some people say, "If God is so good, why is there so much bad in the world". I say, "The fact that there is
still good in this world, when mankind is so evil shows that God still is working in our world, in spite of us"
There are a LOT of good people. There are a lot of good things that happen every day. We must focus
on the good. Our response to evil must be good. Our response to tragedy must be love, not despair.

  When Dusty was murdered we all hurt so bad. We were angry, devastated. In fact a wound was opened
 that will never be healed completely in this life. But I also saw the response. Our family came together like
never before. We held each other , we told each other how much we meant to one another. We became
stronger than ever.

 When my good friend Kevin Harrison lost his beautiful daughter  Beth in the prime of her life, it was
as if the world had ended. So much hurt and pain, and yes anger. Even anger at God. God understands.
But something else happened. Hundreds and hundreds of people showered the Harrisons with love
and support. SO much good came to the fore. Closure? No. Heaven will bring closure at the great family
reunion we will have one day.

 There is still so much good in the world! Our family our friends. the beautiful rivers and the mountains.
Our spouses and children, and grand children, and great grandchildren. Yes human beings can be bad,
Just read the paper. but although we can be devils, we can also rise to be like angels. Angels of kindness
and love. Sure there is a lot of bad in this world. But this morning I woke up and the birds were singing.
My beautiful wife was lying peacefully asleep next to me. My little dog was wagging her tail with joy that
my eyes were open.

 Better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Corny but true. Today celebrate love! When my children
were little we used to listen to James Taylor a lot. A few years ago my daughter Monica called from
Mississippi to tell me she had tickets to a James Taylor concert. I couldn't leave Missouri at the time.
But the evening of the concert, she called me  and said,  "Listen Daddy". She held up her phone
and let me listen while James sang, "shower the people you love with love, tell them the way that you feel"
When the song was over she said, "I love you daddy, wish you were here". That is what life is all about.

 Today, have fun, enjoy life! enjoy nature, and your children. Say something nice to someone. Life
is still good. And God will straighten out the bad stuff one day.

Jack