You’re not alone in trying to figure this one out.
***Be sure to see my newer post with more about Why Does God Allow suffering?
With many “bad things”, it comes down to this: God didn’t design us all to be robots to go around doing his bidding. He gave us “free will” – which means we can choose if we want to love Him and follow Him and His ways…or not.
Sadly, many choose to go their own way; actually we all do at various times or in various ways in our lives (see the earlier question about “sin”). We humans have an amazing ability to convince ourselves that what we want to do is okay, and this leads to all sorts of problems, like crime, abortion, divorce, financial troubles, STD’s, you name it – including all of the “smaller things” that lead up to the big things. And as much as this all saddens us (whether it’s a bad choice we made or someone who has wronged us), imagine how it must break God’s heart to see his children hurting each other.
When it comes to illness or accidents, sometimes it’s because we didn’t take care of ourselves or we weren’t being careful enough, but sometimes it’s not.
Sometimes it’s evil so dark that you don’t know WHY God didn’t stop it, but again, He doesn’t take away free will.
Sometimes crap just happens. Does He allow it because of some greater good that He can bring from it? I don’t know.
Here’s a really good post on this topic: Not everything happens for a reason.
For all the unanswered questions, we have to file it under, “maybe we’ll find out someday”.
That’s a very difficult phrase to live with because it means letting go of our own control issues and our need to figure everything out, and just trusting Him to get you through it. This is when the rubber meets the road and you find out what your faith is really made of.
Will you still love Him, even when it’s not easy? Even when you cannot for the life of you figure out why He would let (fill in the blank) happen?
Often people tell about how, even though they were angry with God (and by the way, He can take it), they stuck with Him, and had a peace through their hardship that they’d never have had without Him. He was their solid Rock to pull them through to the light on the other side. His arms are wide open and He wants nothing more than to be the One we lean on, the one to carry you just like in the popular poem, “Footprints in the Sand”:
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
I pray I’ll be able to walk the talk when my own time of suffering comes and that I can stay firm, trusting in Jesus, because I know my time will come…
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