This is the episode is part six in a series dealing with the question “what does the Bible have to say about why bad things happen to good people”. This episode asks the opposite question. “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Can God love even those who are his enemies?
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I enjoyed this study. I found out about this podcast from the Typical Mac User Podcast
What a blessing. Keep up the God work Chris!
-Dennis
This is something I struggle with daily. As a 44 year old man that has been in church all 44 years, went to a Christian school all my school years and even now am at the same church for the past 35 years, I struggle with this question daily. My mother passed away in 1994, 16 years ago. I had just turned 18, just graduated and was trying to figure out what college to accept a baseball scholarship from. My parents were active in our church, taught “children’s” church for as long as I could remember and my mom was the director of Child Evangelism fellowship here in our home town. She put on so many vacation bible schools and lead so many church camps I can’t even count. And till this day 1 question haunts my thoughts, why???? I know all the right answers, I say all the right things when I need to. “She was done with her work on earth” “She completed what God wanted her to accomplish on earth” all those things but the question still haunts me. Maybe it’s just human nature to think things aren’t”fair” but that’s how I feel. She led so many people to Christ I can’t count and yet her reward was to die and 40 and leave myself, my brother and my father without her? It’s so hard to unlock your brain enough to try to understand that we had 40 great years with her, that she taught and more importantly showed me how to love God and how to obey him and I feel like a failure because even now, 16 years later at 44 years old I still question God. I know her true reward was great and she would want nothing else but to be by her Lord’s side but as a human, as a real person, how do you understand that and really believe that when we are human and have feeling and emotions? How do you get over that hump of saying it’s not fair, she deserved to see her son get married, to see her grandkids, to love on them and teach them about God the way she showed and taught me. Yet if she were here she would be telling me how wrong I am for questioning God. Through a year and a half of cancer, and so much pain she never (at least openly) bemoaned God. I can’t honestly say I would do the same. I just wish I was more like her.
26 years, not 16.
Scott, first I am sorry for your loss. There is no way I can explain the why of your mom’s death or of any particular person’s death. I think we sometimes tie ourselves in theological knots by not saying “I don’t know” and “it seems unfair”. What I can say is that our priorities and God’s are not the same. We measure things by what it looks like in the 7, 44, or 98 years we get. God measures things by eternity. So God’s goal is not our long life and his reward is not a long life. But we think it should be. I also know that this is a broken and fallen world. It is very clear in 2020 that it contains sadness, disease, and injustice. That won’t be fixed until Jesus comes again. It all feels wrong, because it is wrong. This was not the original plan. Even all the disciples who Jesus knew and loved died. Some like James, at a young age, and one, his brother John, in old age. Lazarus, who Jesus loved, died… twice. Many die without having positively affected anyone. Unmourned. Unloved. The best ones leave a big hole. That big hole is a sign of a life well-lived… even if much shorter than we would like.
Thank you for your answer. The sad part is, I know all of this. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is where she wants to be. I know she is happier than she ever could have been here on earth and I know she is worshipping God and has been rewarded for the life she led here. It’s all just plain ol’ selfishness on my part to want her here. As you stated, this world is severely broken, why would anyone wish someone back here? Human broken nature I guess. I just long to get my heart where my head is. I understand all these things, but my heart won’t catch up. I long for the day when there is zero bitterness, zero questioning and just total reliance and trust on and in God. Until then, we just keep praying through the bad days. Thank you for the podcasts. Just found you a week or 2 ago. I mow a lot at work and was tired of music so I searched for a podcast on revelations and found you. Listened to about 7 full series so far. Really enjoying it. Just speak up, its sometimes hard to hear over a mower engine and blades running :). Keep up the good work. God bless. P.S. Did you ever do one detailed on Joseph? Couldn’t find one.