Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Recently, I've been studying in Genesis. I'm amazed at how something different always jumps out at me. This time, I got taken by God telling Noah that he won't destroy the earth with a flood again. In my mind, this is his way of saying, "I realize that mankind is evil. Instead of giving mankind what they deserve, I will work with them, despite their evil." I wonder if Noah understood the can of worms that opened! Or if he thought, "Great! Cause I don't know if I could survive another cruise like that!"

The first major problem after the flood was at the Tower of Babel. Most people think that they wanted to put an idol on the top of the tower. And suddenly, God is faced with a large quantity of evil, again. I get frustrated with how many times I clean up the same thing. As soon as I do, it's dirty again. I can't even imagine how God feels with such a larger scale mess! If I were God, I would think, "I just took care of this! I should wipe them out again. Oh, wait. There's a rainbow. And I promised I wouldn't." But then again, it's a good thing for all of us that I'm not God! So, God confuses them by giving them separate languages. (This is why I now have problems speaking with my in-laws. Thanks a lot, early offspring of Noah!!!) Now, picture yourself a wife of one of the men who was building the tower. That day, when he came home, "Hey! Didn't I tell you I didn't want you involved in building this tower??!!! I knew it was wrong, and you told me that it would be great. I begged. I pleaded. But did you listen? NO. Now I can't talk to the neighbor, our distant relatives, or my best friend. Well, I hope you enjoy the sound of me talking, because now you're the only one I've got to speak to. And I have a lot of things to talk about." All mankind suffered because the people building the tower didn't get what they deserved. (And now we also know why God didn't chose to put me in bible times!)

The hard truth is that God's mercy is why bad things happen. Mercy. Not getting what we deserve. During the last year, I read The Shack. (I'm not recommending this book, just commenting on something I remember) At one time, the man questions why God allowed his daughter to be killed, when he could have stopped it. He could have prevented the murderer from ever being alive. I think we do this a lot. We question, "Why didn't you stop this?" And sometimes the "this" is unthinkable. But it's still his mercy. If he stopped one person, how would he choose? We would want to say, "Okay. Take out all the people who kill or rape or torture." (just some examples) and God could counter with, "Alright, it sounds like you want me to stop anyone who is unnecessarily cruel." "Yeah, unnecessarily cruel." "Sounds good. What about the time you were talking about Susie behind her back with your girlfriends?" "Well, that's not really cruel." "She heard you guys and left in tears. Have you noticed that she hasn't returned since?" "Well, if I would have known I would have called and apologized." "For what?" "Being rude and inconsiderate." "Or maybe, being unecessarily cruel?"

See, we want to look around and say, "I may not be doing what's EXACTLY right, but I'm way better than this person." But even a murderer can say, "I may kill, but at least I don't torture them first." We want to rate sin, but the truth is, there will always be someone that you perceive to be better, and someone you perceive to be worse than you. Sin is in the eye of the beholder. And if the beholder is God, then we're all in deep trouble. Because he has no sin. So, we're all WAY worse than him. But thankfully, he's merciful. No one gets what we deserve here on earth. Even if bad things happen to us, it's still not what we deserve. God's mercy. How amazing.

Disclaimer:
1. I'm not a theologian, and I realize that several of my arguments are probaby unfounded anywhere except my head.
2. This speaks nothing of the times that God does stop bad things from happening to us, and there are plenty of those!
3. Knowing something is not always comforting. Please don't throw this back in my face the next time some catastrophe comes my way. Maybe when I'm already in the recovery process, but not when I'm in the mourning process.