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| The tragedies of life affect all of us. |
A person can live a life of faith, be an upstanding member of the church and the community, be a good husband and father and still experience the tragedies of life. Why?
The answer to this question certainly isn't simple by any means, but the root of the answer lies in our ability to choose, our free will. When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in paradise with the free will to do whatever they pleased, except for one thing. God gave them specific instructions to not eat fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Eve disobeyed God and as a consequence sin was brought to the world. The Bible teaches us that God created us "in His image". This "image" refers to the non-physical part of us, our soul. God gave all of us the ability to make choices by giving us our free will. We must understand that by having the ability to make choices, there is automatically a resulting consequence for each choice we make.
There is a parable about a farmer whose horse ran away. After a few days, the horse came back with a whole herd of wild horses, so the farmer was pleased. The farmer's son was riding one of these horses and fell off breaking his leg and the farmer thought this was bad. In a little while the government called all the young men to war, but the son couldn't go because of his broken leg and the farmer thought this was good.
There are many instances in the Bible where Jesus healed those who had been stricken by a terrible disease or were born with some type of deformity. In these situations Jesus intervened in bad situations, but God does not intervene in every bad situation just as He sometimes says "No" to a prayer. If God intervened every time something bad happened, that would make our free will a moot point.
There are organizations in the United States who are attempting to control weather patterns around the world with the idea of using weather related events as a weapon against an enemy in time of war. Could man's efforts to control the forces of nature be a contributing factor to the major floods, earthquakes and other catastrophic events happening around the world? Is the choice of man causing bad things to happen to good people?
Sometimes we see events in our lives as some type of punishment. But, instead of punishment, could these events really be a true opportunity for growth? What can be a greater punishment than having to send your only son to be nailed to a cross and die? Yet, this event changed the lives of all people on earth.
When a young child dies, God doesn't see it as a loss, because He is bringing them home. A child may die because of a dreaded disease, neglect by the caregiver, or from an accident. Obviously, deaths caused by neglect and accidents are the direct consequence of someones ability to make a choice. The only comfort that could possibly be found in a situation involving the loss of a child is the comfort of a loving Heavenly Father. Could the death of this child cause the parents to form an organization that would save thousands of lives? Could some good come from such a tragedy?
Life is a series of events with some of these events being good and others being bad. Many times it will not be the events that drastically change our lives, but how we react to those events. For the rest of our lives, we will never fully understand why certain events happen and we will not always be able to explain why bad things happen to good people, but we shouldn't blame God.
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