Why do bad things happen to good people? A question many have tried to answer. In fact, a book was published with that title some years back. ‘Why?’ ‘Why me?’, ‘How could this happen?’; searching for answers to life’s difficulties usually begins with a why or a how. The end result of all this searching usually ends in not helping a whole lot.
One of the things that I love about our pastor is his ability to share with us his ‘teachable moments’. This past week, for him, had one of those. He related his personal story and then cited the story of Joseph. The story is a well-known one: put in a hole in the ground, sold by his brothers, and thrown into prison. Joseph was one of those good people who was rained on a lot and for a long time. The moral here—his circumstances didn’t have anything to do with him.
Skip to Mark 10 and the story of the rich young ruler. The young man calls Jesus good and Jesus replies that God is the only one who is good. Good meaning without sin. So the result is: Why do bad things happen? The short answer is that this world is corrupted by sin. Sometimes it’s hard to focus in on that when the world is spinning out of control. Things happen so fast that our vision becomes blurry. It’s easy to lose sight of what is going on.
That’s when it’s most important to look through the eyes of faith and know that, no matter what happens, we have an advocate with God. (First John, second chapter)
Copies of the sermon are always available and we would love to send you a CD of it. They are free. Call (4l7) 543-6219 to get a copy. However, if you would rather just pick one up, they are available at Strong’s Watch Shop in Barnes Shopping Center, Ava.
