BAD THINGS HAPPEN

Bad things happen. That is a fact of this life. Bad things happen to everyone, good people and bad people alike. There is no discrimination. Some people suffer more bad in their lives than do others. But the amount of bad that happens to us is not in direct proportion to the deliberate bad we do. Good people are not spared their share of the bad just because they are good. And bad people do not receive a disproportionate share of the bad just because they are bad.

In fact, I have seen -- at least outwardly -- more good people suffering worse fates than I have seen bad people. Of course, outward judgements are simply that. One never knows for sure. Nevertheless, it is still true that bad things happen to all of us. Trees fall onto the roofs of good and bad alike. Flying rocks crack the windshields of both. Cancer strikes where it wills.

No one deserves to have bad things happen, accidental bad things. When we do something foolish and something bad results, we know whom to blame. But falling trees and flying rocks and infectious cancer have no cause-and-effect relationship when it comes to whom they will strike. Bad things happen to everyone.

Years ago Rabbi Harold Kushner was in town in which I was serving to speak to a group of clergy. The Rabbi and his wife suffered a tragic bad in their lives when a son died young. This event prompted Rabbi Kushner to reflect on the event and then write his reflections in his best seller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Notice, he did not ask why bad things happen. But, in a way, he does. His conclusion is that bad things happen because God is not all-powerful. For if God were, God would not allow bad to happen to anyone, unless it was deserved because of one's foolishness.

But that is the point. Because God has created us with free will, God allows us to do foolish things which will result in bad things happening to us and even to others who do not deserve it. We drive 100 miles per hour and kill ourselves and kill other innocent people as well. God chooses not to stop us from hurting ourselves and hurting others because God chose to create us with free will. God could have chosen otherwise. I don't like that. I wish God would prevent my foolishness.

Thus, when undeserved bad happens to good people, it is not because God cannot stop it. It is because God created the universe that way. However, God did not create us the way God did without also resolving the problem. The resolution is resurrection. There is always resurrection. We can recover from the bad that happens either in this life or in the life to come or both.

If we do not believe in resurrection, we are out of luck. I feel for those who do not because they have nothing left except to endure the bad and perhaps curse God in the process. I can bless and praise God even when bad things happen because I believe there is always resurrection, some how in some way, in this life or in the life to come, there is always resurrection. Believe it!