Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
I must preface by saying that I don't know that I will have a very helpful response, especially if you are in the midst of suffering, but I will offer my humble perspective for at least one answer (not a complete or exhaustive answer) as to why God allows us to suffer.
First we must answer the question, what is suffering? Suffering embodies loss. I feel pain because of the loss of something of value. We suffer loss of health and comfort as the result of disease. We suffer loss when someone we love dies. We suffer emotional pain at the pain of others.
To put it in its antithetical context, I have lost a source of joy. This is the pattern of suffering.
Enjoyment, loss, pain, suffering.
Herein lies what, I think, may be one answer to the question, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
Perhaps one of the reasons is to point us to the eternal source of joy, namely Himself, and redirect our misguided faith in our own ability to sustain joy for ourselves.
The heart of the answer truly lies at the source of enjoyment, the foundation of our pleasure. Psalm 16:11 says, "In Your (God's) presence there is fullness of joy, at His (God's) right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
When something or someone is the source of our joy, they can disappoint us, deceive us, or be taken from us and therefore the source of our joy is taken and we are left joyless or attempting to sustain our joy by some other means.
The key phrase in Psalm 16 is "fullness of joy." This signifies complete joy, a joy that last forever. The promise of God is that, once a person is in His presence, He will never leave nor forsake him or her (Hebrews 13:5). God is the source of unending joy that can not be taken from you and needs no sustenance from you.
Secondly I think we have a misunderstanding of joy. Happiness and sadness are often seen as synonymous terms with joy and suffering, therefore if I am unhappy, I have no joy.
This simply does not have to be true. I can have joy in the midst of suffering if I still have a source of sustainable joy to cast my cares upon. Our problem is that all too often we seek answers from God when the storm arrives instead of placing our joy in Him prior to suffering and we see Him as a bully, unfair, and unloving.
Our desire is for God to return the joy of the temporal because we have no sensation of the fullness of joy in Him.
As C.S. Lewis wrote in his book "Weight of Glory," "We are like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because we can not imagine what is meant by the offering of a holiday at sea."
The apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians with the repeated theme of joy, while he suffered in prison. How could this be? Why such joy? Here is Paul's reason:
"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:7-8
Paul saw the surpassing worth of God. He saw Jesus Christ as infinitely valuable and valued the unwavering fullness of joy in God's presence more than any temporary joy giving element.
In short, once you have tasted the joy of the Lord, all other sources of joy, no matter how enjoyable, seem unsatisfactory in light of the joy filled relationship of knowing God personally.
So why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Perhaps it is to point the sufferer back to the eternal joy giver.
• Danny Fierro is the associate pastor of Silver Hills Community Church and can be reached at www.chasingjoy.org.