If God is so good, then why does He let bad things happen to good people?
I lay in a hospital bed last week beside a woman who was wrestling with a question as old as time itself. It’s hard to know what to say in these moments. The temptation to rush into answers that are shallow and a ‘sticky plaster’ on an amputated leg.
I listened as she told me her story. It was one of despair, violence and abuse both to herself and to her children. One of injustice, isolation and feelings of abandonment and fear as deep as the ocean. It is a story we are all too familiar with and have become desensitised too because of documentaries and social media where everyone becomes a judge and jury from the comfort of their sofa. But sitting next to this broken woman, I couldn’t help but think that God was comfortable in her questioning.
What if her questioning the existence of God led her to finding a home for her heart to receive eternal peace.
What if I became comfortable in her questions and doubt and ‘pulled up a chair’ and sat with her in the gutter of her life and introduced her to my friend Jesus. What if for a moment I could take off my glasses of judgement and see through the lens of Heaven – what would I see?
Instead of seeing a woman with a few teeth and scruffy hair and assuming the worst of her, what if I was the candle in the window of her dark night of the soul to shine a light home to the Jesus she learnt about long ago in school.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44-45 ESV
What started as a brief conversation turned into hours of talking and unburdening her soul of the pain, hurt and abandonment she had felt for her entire life. I found words filling my mouth from the Psalms, Proverbs and loving promises from God’s Word – salve to the broken soul. She marvelled over the wisdom which I emphasised was not my own and pointed her to the one who has her name written on the palm of her hand.
We spoke until the other women in our ward started to sleep and the lights were turned off. I waited until she fell asleep and then started to pray for her and her three young children. At 2am she was abruptly taken by ambulance for an emergency surgery, our parting words were ‘you are not alone, God will never leave you or forsake you. Ask him to be with you and He will until the end of time.’ We embraced with a few tears and she left.
I lay in the hospital bed, unable to do much with the pain I was experiencing in my own body, but overwhelmed that once again God had turned something that the enemy had meant to cause harm through my body, to give hope and renewed sense of purpose to a woman who had lost it all.
Perspective is a gift from God. It is not self assurance, but an invitation to know that our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts[Isaiah 55:8-9].
So why does God let bad things happen to good people?
The truth is – I don’t know! But what I do know is that I am not alone when bad things happen to me. In those moments where everything feels like it’s being dismantled and falling apart, like my new friend, I feel abandoned, isolated and fearful. The only difference is I have the Sar Shalom beside me, the Prince of Peace.
God’s peace has weathered me through every single storm in my life and it will continue to do so until the day He calls me home.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
I lay in a hospital bed last week beside a woman who was wrestling with a question as old as time itself. It’s hard to know what to say in these moments. The temptation to rush into answers that are shallow and a ‘sticky plaster’ on an amputated leg.
I listened as she told me her story. It was one of despair, violence and abuse both to herself and to her children. One of injustice, isolation and feelings of abandonment and fear as deep as the ocean. It is a story we are all too familiar with and have become desensitised too because of documentaries and social media where everyone becomes a judge and jury from the comfort of their sofa. But sitting next to this broken woman, I couldn’t help but think that God was comfortable in her questioning.
What if her questioning the existence of God led her to finding a home for her heart to receive eternal peace.
What if I became comfortable in her questions and doubt and ‘pulled up a chair’ and sat with her in the gutter of her life and introduced her to my friend Jesus. What if for a moment I could take off my glasses of judgement and see through the lens of Heaven – what would I see?
Instead of seeing a woman with a few teeth and scruffy hair and assuming the worst of her, what if I was the candle in the window of her dark night of the soul to shine a light home to the Jesus she learnt about long ago in school.
What started as a brief conversation turned into hours of talking and unburdening her soul of the pain, hurt and abandonment she had felt for her entire life. I found words filling my mouth from the Psalms, Proverbs and loving promises from God’s Word – salve to the broken soul. She marvelled over the wisdom which I emphasised was not my own and pointed her to the one who has her name written on the palm of her hand.
We spoke until the other women in our ward started to sleep and the lights were turned off. I waited until she fell asleep and then started to pray for her and her three young children. At 2am she was abruptly taken by ambulance for an emergency surgery, our parting words were ‘you are not alone, God will never leave you or forsake you. Ask him to be with you and He will until the end of time.’ We embraced with a few tears and she left.
I lay in the hospital bed, unable to do much with the pain I was experiencing in my own body, but overwhelmed that once again God had turned something that the enemy had meant to cause harm through my body, to give hope and renewed sense of purpose to a woman who had lost it all.
Perspective is a gift from God. It is not self assurance, but an invitation to know that our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts [Isaiah 55:8-9].
The truth is – I don’t know! But what I do know is that I am not alone when bad things happen to me. In those moments where everything feels like it’s being dismantled and falling apart, like my new friend, I feel abandoned, isolated and fearful. The only difference is I have the Sar Shalom beside me, the Prince of Peace.
God’s peace has weathered me through every single storm in my life and it will continue to do so until the day He calls me home.