Why does bad things happen to good people?

 

Reflection by Pamela Scott DCS 

 

Why does bad things happen to good people?  This is a question we all ask at some point in our life, but it is also a question we find very difficult to answer if we are asked it by someone.  We always feel our answer isn’t good enough, especially when there are some people who then use that as an argument for there not being a God.  

 

I have recently read a book called ‘The Shack’ by William P. Young and we decided to watch the film at the Fellowship that is held weekly in Benarty.  The entire film was based on the main character asking this question and having to live with something bad happening to his innocent young daughter, she was abducted and killed.  When the main character, Mackenzie, met God he wanted to understand why his daughter was taken from him and blame God for not stopping it.  What sort of life would we lead if God stopped all the bad things happening?  Would we all be clones, doing the same things?  Would there be any variety in life?  Would that remove our ability to think and have free will? 

 

During Mack’s time with God he was asked to be the judge of people.  He had a hard upbringing with his father hitting his mother and him.  He was asked to decide if his father was bad, he agreed he was.  He then saw his father as a small child crying in bed, was he guilty of being bad?  Mack said he was only a child and he couldn’t be bad, it then turned out that his father was beaten by his father.  God suggested that we never know what kind of upbringing someone has had, that may cause them to do bad things and they should be brought to a point where they recognise that they do bad things, however we are not the people to do that, only God can. 

 

So, is God responsible for bad things happening to good people.  I would suggest not and during the film we saw God saying over again that he was with Mack, his family and his daughter, every step of the way.  Unfortunately, when something bad happens to us we are so consumed by this that we forget to turn to God but every step of the way he is with us and never leaves us. 

 

This doesn’t answer the question ‘Why does bad things happen to good people?’ but it does give us a bit more of an understanding, with the knowledge that we will understand fully one day.