What to do When Bad Things Happen-Is There Hope?

In England and Wales, the number of women who decided to end their lives rose sharply in 2022 reaching a 20-year high. While the number of men who ended their lives fell, women’s suicide increased.
 
What causes a good person to decide to take their own life? I am sure each person felt they had rational reasons for doing so. Many of them may have endured great suffering of body or mind. 

But to make sense of human suffering we can learn from Jobs’ despair and anguish, when there seems to be no hope at all. 

Lessons from Job

I am studying Job in my daily quiet time and found it an incredible insight into the human condition. None of us must feel ashamed by having such thoughts, even if an attempt to die has been made. Like Job, we are human, weak at times and may feel there is no way out of our circumstances except to die. 
 
A few years ago, I led a 2-part bible study. In the first part, we studied Job- chapters 1 to 3. It’s such a big book to explore over two sessions, so we studied the overall theme to see what we could learn.

Finally, we reflected upon what to do when bad things happen to good people, which gave us much food for thought.
 
 This is one of those questions that people of faith have pondered for millennia, and we wrestle with it today.

Why do seemingly good or innocent people suffer? It’s not fair when children die in natural disasters or war. So why are infants born with debilitating diseases, and why do babies get cancer? 
 
Job is a book in the Old Testament that deals with these difficult questions head-on. The Book of Job tells the story of a truly righteous man. In fact, God himself says that Job is blameless. Yet Job suffers horribly and quite unfairly! Or so it seems.

Why Do We Suffer?

In his later years, Job loses all his possessions and family in one day! This is a time of life when one should kick back and enjoy the fruit of his labour and the love of his family.

Then, he loses his health and suffers from a horrible disease, leaving his life in a terrible mess. Yet, in all of this, Job does not sin against God.

But why did such bad things happen to this good person? The answer may be much closer to home than we may think.

For me, it’s in my own family. Why did God allow my youngest son to be injured when serving as a Royal Marine in Afghanistan, and who carries scars in his body and mind today?

The Book of Job was probably written between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago, so there have been several approaches to this issue. Let’s attempt to answer the question: Why do bad things happen to good people?
 
Job was a good man — after all, even Lucifer said so.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

However, after diligently reading Job and researching I began to ask the question, “Who is really good?” 

After all, the Bible says because of original sin, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” So, all of us are deserving of giving account to our sin. Sin causes suffering. So, really, we could theorise that bad things do not happen to good people because there are no truly good people. 
 
Well, what about Job? Could he have been genuinely blameless? Maybe he was just as blameless as a person could be. Or he was blameless by the standards of the day. But Jesus Christ raised the bar of righteousness to show us God’s standard. 
 
Jesus says if we covet, we have stolen. If we hate, we have killed. By those standards, we are all thieves and murderers — sinners all! 

If we Think about doing it in Our Heart — We have done it.

So, Job may have been blameless by human standards but not by God’s eternal standards. But you may think that this answer falls woefully short. It might satisfy most of us.

But what about the suffering endured by children and infants? It doesn’t explain people born with debilitating and painful ailments. To say we all deserve punishment isn’t an adequate answer to may people.

Looking at it on Human Terms

 The second answer is that bad things happen to good people because God chooses not to interfere with human providence.

This is based on the idea that God is detached from the universe. God started the machinery of the universe going perfectly- it was good- and people have messed it all up.

As a result, bad things happen to good people because we have messed up how the universe is supposed to work.  Our sin has thrown a spanner into the internal workings of the cosmos and gummed up the machine. But that is not a Christian belief. 

Let’s Look Deeper

The Bible and Christian Tradition say that God IS involved in his universe. God IS involved in each of our lives all because He loves us. God intervenes in nature’s workings as well. God causes oceans to part and rain to fall, heal diseases, and saves people from sin itself.

God even went as far as to come in the flesh in Jesus Christ to intervene in the final destiny of humankind. Sin had to die for humanity to be free.

So God came to earth to take sin upon himself and bore the penalty. Jesus didn’t just teach; he also healed and died for the world’s sins. So, like the first answer, there may be more than the second one for some. Bad things happen to good people because God allows us free will. 

The Permissive Will of God

God, in his eternal love, has allowed us to do what we want. We can choose to do evil because we have been given free will as a gift. We can choose to drive drunk and kill innocent pedestrians.

We can choose to dump toxic chemicals into the water supply and cause innocent people to get cancer.

We can fire a gun into the air without thinking about where the bullet might land and who it might injure or kill. This would explain many of the tragedies of the world. 
 
Much suffering can be attributed to the malicious or irresponsible acts of others. For example, perhaps infants are born with congenital disabilities because of our society’s toxic and radioactive chemicals or genetic factors.

Chemicals and materials in the environment may cause other illnesses, too. But it still doesn’t explain things like natural disasters. Could global warming be blamed for some of it?

But it doesn’t explain all the earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornados that inflict suffering on so many innocent people. This answer has a valid point but still needs to be completed. 
 
I have barely scratched the surface here. You can go to the library and get all kinds of books by theologians and philosophers that deal with this issue. We may not want to hear accept God’s answer. Don’t get me wrong. Many have good answers and may help us understand parts of the question, but they miss the point. 

God gave us the answer: ‘My ways are not yours, says God.’ 
Near the end of the book, Job demands that God explain why horrible things have happened to him.

Finally, we have God’s answer in chapters 38–41 of Job. But God doesn’t give an explanation. Instead, God asks Job a series of questions:

Were you there when I put the stars in the places? Can you tell the sea where to go?

Do you understand the ways of the creatures of the deep?

Can you control them?

In the end, Job says, “Surely I have spoken of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” God’s answer is: “I am God. I know what I am doing, so trust me”.

God Reveals the Answer to Job

God is the One who created this universe, and God is the One who ultimately is in control of it. So, we should trust God.

Sure, things happen that don’t make sense or seem right to us and are totally unfair.

As mere human beings, we are incapable of understanding the fullness of the universe.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask questions, seek understanding, or even question God as Job did. But ultimately, God is in control.

I asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Perhaps the more important question is not “why” bad things happen but how we respond “when” they do happen!

Jobs Dilemma

 In Chapter 1, Job loses all his possessions and his family. In fact, his whole life. His response surprised us; he declared, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 
 
In Chapter 2, Job loses his health and suffers from a painful disease. Finally, his own wife tells him to curse God and die. But his reply is, “Shall we accept the good from God and not trouble?”
 
Job shows us the response of the faithful in the face of suffering. First, it is to acknowledge that God is the one in charge. It is like the song “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” He’s got you and me and the little bitty babies in his hands. All we can do is trust.
 
When bad things happens to good people, what do we do? How do we respond when the innocent suffer? What do we think when natural disasters injure and kill good people? 

Jesus, I Trust in You

We pray and help those who are suffering where we can. We look to God in faith to trust in his wisdom and power.

He, after all, is the One who created this world and the universe. It is only He who understands it completely.
When you are in great despair about what is going on, trust Jesus to lead you through.

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In the comments section, I would love for you to share your stories and comments about your spiritual life with this community.

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