Why do bad things happen to good people????
My compassionate mother is 99 years old and she has asked this question on more than one occasion. I always answer her the same way…
It only happened once and He volunteered!
“There is none good…no, not one.” Rom 3: 23
“The real problem is not why some pious, humble,
believing people suffer, but why some do not”! C.S. Lewis
“We are not at our best perched at the summit; we are climbers at our best when the way is steep”. John W. Gardner Stretching, growing, struggling, striving, writhing, to become mature and to be equipped to be a benefit to others is at the core of trials and suffering. After all, it is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed. John Calvin said, “We must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy”.
“He who fears to suffer cannot be His who suffered.” Tertullian Wanting to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering… Phil. 3:10 and entering into the insulated growth cocoon in good times…and bad (the difficult “saint perfecting” times) is the key to walking in His strength and the fullness of understanding true gratefulness. Victory over whatever this life brings and seeing through His life-changing perspective makes suffering bearable and profitable, not depressing, disarming and debilitating.
Before this last Thanksgiving I fell coming out of the market and tore a ligament in my knee. I was relieved to learn that it would not require surgery. I used a walker and wore a brace for weeks; graduating to a cane and then after three months I was able to take off the brace. Every step was painful and I began to think maybe the limp was permanent. God saw fit to touch that knee. I certainly do not consider myself a good person, however; most of my youth, the entire time spent in the humid jungles of Panama and the many years up to this date in 2018, I have had severe migraine headaches.
Early in my Christian life, while in Bible School, I was exposed to the truth of welcoming trials and pain as a friend. James 1: 2 It is God’s fastest road to patience, perseverance, joy, hope, gratefulness, faith and love… MATURITY! Given with divine purpose suffering is a valuable tool for my personal growth and the success of others.
“I do not believe that just sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, then the entire world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, gratefulness, understanding, patience, love, openness and willingness to remain vulnerable.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers…” Here we have the formula for growth and it includes trials and suffering.
Trials + acceptance with joy = Growth
What to others are disappointments are to believers intimations of the way and will of God. Nothing demonstrates what we are more accurately than the way we meet trials and difficulties.
Are you struggling today?
“Afflictions are but the shadow of God’s wings”…George MacDonald
“When God wants to bring more power into your life,
He brings more pressure.”
A. B. Simpson
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
