When Bad Things Happen…What is the Reason?

We have seen plenty circumstances that are both blessings, which seem good, and difficulties, which seem bad. It is common for the question to be asked, “Why did this happen to me?”. The context of the question usually makes it hard to answer. But consider this more seriously, why do bad things happen?

I have a long standing interest in the weather that spans from the exquisite processes involved to weather events. Like many of my friends, I was surprised at the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma from one F5 tornado. But my wife and I also had several trips to Katrina, worked in earthquake-hit areas, and have seen our share of disasters. Sickness and injury follow in the same category of things that kill or change lives forever. How do you answer the question? How do you tell a child the answer? My wife has suffered cancer for over 20 years. It has changed our life style, our decision making, our planning, and our finances. So I can ask the same question.

It is the juxtaposition or placement beside each other of two things that make the question penetrating. On one hand, we see beauty or experience delight from an event or relationship. On the other hand, events in the same lives can be devastating.

Consider the circumstances of a lunar observation period that generated the sketch below. My period was utterly still, delightfully peaceful, and perfectly quiet. A few states away the generators are working, wreckage is being moved to find missing people, and street signs are being put up to help mark locations that are no longer recognizable because of one tornado’s damage. You have the images of Oklahoma, so consider the observing sketch period result below, and we will continue our story.

20130521-Philolaus-Anaximen

 

The Job scripture is appropriate. God is greater than we can understand. Job knew, and his story is not fictitious. It happened. I have used the same theme in other stories, but it bears repeating because the cradle of Christianity is the fact that we live in a fallen world, a world that is broken because something went wrong at the beginning. And, that something is inside us. It leads to a separation from God and a change in His creation. It is now subjected to death and futility. Of course, we have bright spots, but the evil and wrong and harmful things that happen were never part of the original plan. However, in our current state, we need a change, and the change must occur from the inside of our soul. This is why Jesus came and ensures that we have choice to reach out to Him from any time and place through history. Things, fundamentally, will not get fixed until people, who choose to believe in Him and live accordingly, are with Him in eternity.

I have friends that are from Stillwater OK, which is not far from Moore. I am sure there are believers that were either killed or injured in Moore; it could have been Stillwater that was obliterated. In the same light, my wife and I wrestle with decisions about disease nearly every day–another bad set of circumstances that we did not choose. But believers in Moore and in Virginia  or anywhere else face the same world with a hope in Christ. As we are able and with His love in us, we put one foot in front of the other through widely varying circumstances. It is a walk by faith in Him.

You can call it crazy, but ask someone who has been touched by the love of God. They will say the same thing. He is able to keep us, though we may suffer or be blessed in this world. And, by His grace, we will testify that He is worthy to be praised and not willing that any single person will perish in spiritual terms, even if this life is cut short or marred by a broken world.

 

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