Why do bad things happen?
There is one thing that we can all agree on. Bad things happen. After that it gets a little fuzzy.
I was raise around a
great group of people and an extraordinary family. My mom got cancer when I was 6 and passed
away when I was 12. She was a single mom
with an ex-husband that was dedicated to his family. My sister and I saw struggle, but my mom did
an amazing job to keep it from us as much as she could. After my mom passed away people explained to
me that everything happens for a reason and God won’t give us more than we can
handle. I hadn’t been taught the full
gospel of Grace at that point, but something in my heart told me that what
people were telling me wasn’t true.
You see, the love that my parents gave me and the influence
that people like my grandma had on me encouraged my belief system. I knew Jesus came to save us and I was pretty
convinced that God was a loving God. At
that age I simply refused to believe that the Love that I saw from my parents
and family was greater than the Love that God had for us. These people and this message in my life influenced
who I am today and gave me the drive to announce for the rest of my life to
anyone that would listen that God was a good God and God didn’t want bad things
to happen to us.
For me, the next logical step was the Word. I began going to a church that taught out of
the bible more than I had ever seen before.
I have always been analytically minded and have the type of wiring in my
brain that doesn’t allow conflicting concepts in. So, after reading about Jesus for myself I
decided that he was good. I quickly
realized that the people that showed me love only had the capacity to share
this love because they had seen a small glimpse of this God through their relationship
with Love (God).
Once I established my roots in the fact that God was good, and
loving I started focusing on who I was to Him.
I found quickly that I was justified because of Jesus and my
righteousness was established because of what Jesus did and not because of
anything I can do (self-righteousness).
Now it was time to evaluate the things people had been telling me.
I first looked at “everything happens for a reason.” I found that most base this theology on Roman
8:28. So, I read all of Romans (and the rest of Paul’s writings). Here it is:
Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for
the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his
purpose.
What is Paul saying here?
First, let’s ask a few questions.
Does God cause bad things? Jesus
made it pretty simple in John 10:10 when he said that “the Enemy…Kills, Steals,
and destroys” and Jesus came to give us “life more abundantly.” We can also look at history and ask why there
was a flood and what happened with Ananias and Sapphira? The Bible makes it clear that humans made
such bad choices that God had no choice but to destroy them or the whole world
would be overtaken by evil. Did God
cause that? Are we all puppets to reach
God’s ultimate plan? Is God so small
that he only has one path to a master plan?
I believe God is big enough that he can do what Paul is explaining
here. God can take what the enemy
intended for bad and bring good out of it (for who?) for those that have chosen
Him. Furthermore in Genesis 6:5-7 the
bible says that God regretted making man because of the choices of man. If man was making choices for themselves then
did God change since then?
I started to ask “what is the root of these inconsistencies?” I found out that when the King James Bible
was printed they translated it specifically to promote God’s sovereignty. Now, I believe that God is sovereign by
definition. However, I don’t agree with
most Christian’s interpretation of sovereignty.
Sovereignty doesn’t mean that you cause everything that happens. It means that you are supreme over all. God gave us free will. Why? Because Love can only operate under
freedom. Furthermore, we know that God is Love and we
know that Love is not self-seeking, yet we attribute bad things to God because
we believe He needs them to happen to achieve His ultimate plan at the expense
of His Children.
The second thing people told me that I want to touch on in
this blog is “God won’t give us more than we can handle.” If you want to point to anywhere in the bible
where this is discussed you must understand it in context and not connect it to
someone’s bad fortune. In the Bible this
concept means that God gives us the capacity and the ability through his gifting
and strength to achieve the dreams he has put on our hearts. This is the hands and feet stuff that Jesus
talked about.
God revealed something to me last year about this topic “God
doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”
God told me “the only reason why people have the ability to accept this
concept is because of the country you live in.”
He went on to paint a picture for me of a story I heard about a couple
years ago. The story I saw explained
that there was an epidemic in parts of Africa where millions of babies were
being born and eventually dying because their mothers were being raped by men
with AIDS. When God brought this up it
wrecked me. He showed me pictures of
this and reminded me that he doesn’t want that.
I started to think about this and realized if there was any American
missionary that went to Africa and told them that God won’t give them anything
they can’t handle they would laugh in their face. The fact is that this world does give us more
than we can handle, but we have a great God that heals, restores, and gives
life to those that call His name.
God is not a murderer, hit man, or the elf on the
shelf. He is a loving father and the
purest definition of good. He loves you
deeply and isn’t interested in being a getaway driver for the enemy. The enemy has stolen enough from us. It is time that we stand up to the enemy and
say “we aren’t going to accept your lies anymore.” We need to say “we are the children of God
and through the blood of Jesus we have concurred death and have authority in
this world.”
He passionately loves you.
