This is a very broad question. What I mean by that is it can have specific answers when it comes to different situations in each person’s life. Since I can’t answer this question for every specific situation, I am going to answer it in a broader sense. In other words, I am going to answer this question by explaining why God even made it possible for bad things to happen in the world, which then allows bad things to happen to each of us.
First I want you to imagine something for me. Imagine you have a robot puppy and this robot puppy tells you all the time that it loves you and it always does what you want it to do. Then imagine you also have a regular puppy and sometimes this puppy doesn’t listen to you and does things to get in trouble like chewing up your shoes but this puppy also loves you, he shows you this by wagging his tail and coming to say hello whenever he sees you. Now think about this, how does your heart feel when the robot puppy tells you he loves you? How does your heart feel when the regular puppy tells you he loves you? Which one feels better?
Well even though a robot puppy would be pretty cool to have, it would definitely make my heart feel happier when a real puppy tells me he loves me. This is because in order for love to be real and to mean anything, we have to have the ability to choose not to love. A robot cannot choose whether or not it loves you, it only does what it is programed, or forced, to do, so that is not real love. The real puppy, however, can decide it doesn’t love you, so when it decides that it does love you, that is really special.
God had the same decision when he created the earth. He could have created a paradise where everyone does exactly what he wants them to do. And then there wouldn’t be any evil, or pain, or suffering, or bad things in the world. But if He did that He wouldn’t be able to have a real relationship with people. God decided to create humans because he wanted to have a relationship with us, to interact with us, to love us, and to hopefully have us love him and love each other
All over the Bible we can see how much value God puts on love. For example, Mark 12:28-31 says this:
Mark 12:28-31 (ESV) And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
So, we know for sure, god’s ultimate goal for you and me is that we love God and love one another. In order for this to be possible, we had to be created with the ability to love. In order to make it possible for us to love; He had to give us the ability and option to not love.
When people choose to not love God and to not love each other they often choose to do things God doesn’t want them to do, which we call sin, and sin hurts people. Sins affect the world around us and cause bad things to happen. For example if someone steals money from a store, then the people who own the store can no longer use the money to buy things they need, which means it is a bad thing that has happened to them.
Genesis 2:4- 3:24 tells the story of the first people God created, Adam and Eve, and the moment that they first chose to sin. That sin destroyed the paradise God had created and caused pain to enter the world. In fact, it was because of that sin that, for the first time ever, an animal had to die in order to make clothes for Adam and Eve. It was the first time death had entered our world and the first time people had felt embarrassment and pain.
Bad things happen because we, as people, cause them to happen. Yes, God could force us to stop doing bad things but then He would also be taking away our ability to choose to do good things, and that would make it impossible for us to ever truly love.
The good news is, even when we do bad things, God still loves us and He refuses to give up on us. God knew when he created Adam and Eve that they would mess up and choose not to show Him love. Yet, He also knew that He could fix the problem if He was willing to die on the cross to pay for our sins. So, despite knowing He would have to suffer and die for us, He still chose to create us. Jesus came down to earth and died on the cross to pay for our sins and fix our relationship with God. This means, even though we mess up we can still have a relationship with God.
Now, you can choose to either pay for your sins yourself, which would mean you don’t get to go to Heaven, or you can choose to accept the payment Jesus made for you. If you choose to accept Jesus’ payment, even though bad stuff may happen on this earth, once you get to Heaven, you will no longer have to deal with any bad things.
Revelations 21:4 (KJV) And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
We can also know that God promises that when we accept Jesus’ payment for our sins as our own nothing can take us away from Him.
Romans 8:35-39 (NLT) Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Life may be painful, but without pain we wouldn’t be able to have good things like love. It is never easy to deal with bad things happening, but when they do, God is here for you, don’t be afraid to turn to Him to ask for help to give you the strength you need to make it through the bad things. He loves you, and He wants to hear from you.
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”