If no one were ever sad, there would be no need to smile. When Bad Things Happen to Good People – Summary Text By Harold S. Kushner (1981)--notes by Doug Muder (1997) Introduction, Why I wrote this book. He sees my road intersecting with the roads of my wife and children and friends and brothers and sisters. Apr 06, 2020 |. This oft-repeated question says nothing about God, but everything about human beings. If all good people lived to old age and died of natural causes, this would be easily detectable by even the simplest analysis. This is the principle reason “bad” things happen to good people. Indeed, there is more prediction in Scripture of a struggle on earth for the believer than there is of gain and success. Take your righteous anger and turn it into a force for doing good. “Bad things do happen to good people in this world, but it is not God who wills it. 7 Bible verses for further reflection, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” Genesis 50:20, “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Nice to have it on my phone. So keep asking the question, why do bad things happen to good people. Bill Hybels, Timothy Keller, and Timothy Peck give us their perspective on this weighty topic. That’s all! People often use this question to disprove a loving God. They are reaping the fruitage of what they did in their previous lives.”. God will be with us, forbidding those things that harass us here on earth, including disease, violence, and the destruction causing us to question why bad things happen to good people. Very simply, each of us has the power to make someone’s day a little better, and this makes us better. We may question a person's sanity, a person's reasoning abilities,… It may be that the sorrow of suffering in this life brings about perfect happiness in the next. Why wouldn't God stop this pain and help me? If that may be the case, perhaps we should be asking a quite different question: How could a good God never allow suffering? If God truly loves us and God is omniscient, why, then would He never allow suffering? Again, this does not minimize the reality and significance of evil and suffering—it only sets the framework for our discussion. How can it be that a young mother dies, or that a friend becomes paralyzed? Suffering could be explained if God were great, but not good. Only the Christian can raise the question of why bad things happen to ‘good’ people, because we have a transcendent standard by which some things are indeed declared ‘evil’ or ‘bad’. Though suffering varies greatly in difference and degree, it is a universal human condition. Though it can certainly have the reverse effect, suffering can make us better people than we would have been without it. That fact does not negate pain and sorrow, but if Heaven is our home—rather than Earth—then the very question of suffering and death is quite different, indeed. In His Providence, God desires all the intersections between each other to make us better people. Job wondered why. In fact, Job was the most famous wonderer-why of them all. And one day, when your faith becomes sight, you will thank him for every difficulty. And He has known from all eternity. We might look at it like this: If no one were ever sick, there would be no need to heal another.If no one were ever lonely, there would be no need to befriend another.If no one were ever tired, there would be no need to hold another up.If no one were ever suffering, there would be no need to practice compassion.If no one were ever ignored, there would be no need to listen.If no one were ever sad, there would be no need to smile.If no one were ever poor, there would be no need to give.If no one were ever lost, there would be no need to help another find his way.If no one were ever in need, we would have no need for each other. Sitemap. But we are quick to ask “Why do bad things happen?” Bad things happen because people, beginning with our first parents (Adam and Eve), disobeyed God. . All the things after sin entered the world, reflect the enemy. It usually is “Why do [you God, let…] bad things happen to people? I would say that the question—and even the problem—are actually more of a difficulty and a conundrum for the nonbeliever than for the Christian. Bluntly, if God is good, how can it be that a child gets cancer? God does not come in the way of us undergoing our destiny, be it individual or collective. Or by asking, 'Where is the God of justice?'" Christianity Today strengthens the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel. If no one were ever sick, there would be no need to heal another. As the saying goes, “We’re all in this together,” but I wonder if we can ever grasp how intertwined this togetherness really is. Get back to basics with the truth of the gospel. God would like people to get what they deserve in life, but He cannot always arrange it. Why should the good suffer? Christians believe that this life on earth is only the land of shadows and that real life hasn't yet begun. Christians, on the other hand, believe that these years on earth, while important and to be used wisely and to be enjoyed, are preparation for a far greater life to come. We only need to keep our focus on our Creator and enter into His presence every day through the portal of His holy Word. As the saying goes, “We’re all in this together,” but I wonder if we can ever grasp how intertwined this, Because if you are reading this right now, our paths are crossing. After all, sometimes we experience devastating suffering. Because if Heaven is our destination, we should be asking whether suffering could have a role to play in helping us get to Heaven. After the tragic events at yesterday's Boston Marathon, we are left asking questions that for all intents and purposes cannot be adequately answered. If God truly loves us and God is omniscient, why, then would He never allow suffering? I don’t know. If no one were ever in need, we would have no need for each other. But the true God loves us—even to the point of allowing pain and suffering to further our perfection. As. But for all Job’s wondering, he never questioned whether there was a God. The good things that happen to us also aren’t a reward. There may be Christian sects that promise material wealth and all sorts of triumphs in exchange for faith, but this is a non-Christian, even an anti-Christian bargain, and has never been something that orthodox Christianity would affirm. A great God is able to do anything He wants, and thus He must enjoy watching people suffer. And died of natural causes, this does not stand in the.... There would be a shallow deity whose ultimate objective for his creatures was merely absence. Through the portal of his holy Word died from suffer has already been mostly answered God loves us—even the! Us also aren ’ t deserve to lose a child gets cancer death, is! That real life has n't yet begun: why does God mean he! 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