Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
There’s a book out with this title, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? It has often made me think. In 2020, Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana and Texas with winds of 150 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to 20 feet. That’s not just a storm – that’s a killer storm. California and states in the west have been ravaged by wild fires started by lightning strikes. People have died, and homes have been destroyed.
We hear about people coming down with an incurable disease and we ask the question “Why?” In the middle of the pandemic where a million Americans died, and again the question surfaces – “Why?”
Job 1:8 points us in a direction we need to consider today. “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Job was chosen to suffer a series of losses that defied all odds. Of all the people, Job had a reason to beg for an answer. The Book of Job is filled with his desperate struggle to understand, “Why me?”
The people of Louisiana and Texas are finding their homes destroyed or under water. The people of the West are returning to their homes or what used to be their homes. People who lost a loved one to COVID-19 and in many cases didn’t even get to see them before they died are asking “Why Me?”
Job’s story gives us a way of responding to the mystery of unexplained pain and evil. By looking deeply at the suffering of one of God’s best examples of goodness and mercy, we have an alternative to the rule of planting and reaping that we are used to. If we move from Job to the New Testament, we see that God one day would allow His Son to bear our sinsThe story of Job cannot end in the Old Testament. The story of Job gives us a reason to live by faith rather than sight. When the storms of life hit us, we need to be reminded that we should live by faith. “Faith” in the one who died for our sins and promises us eternal life!
Prayer: God of creation – we often do not understand, but we want to learn to live by “faith” and trust you more each day!
Job 7:20 – “Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?”
By the Rev. Tommy Herndon
