Why do bad things happen to good people?

The biggest question all of us face.  We struggle when bad things happen to us… and to anyone we love. Even when we see random people experiencing difficulty we want to know, who can we blame?  Why would this happen? Many have lost their faith over this issue.  

Even the disciples wonder about this.  Look at this question that the disciples ask Jesus one day as they are walking… 

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” 

Notice where they want to put the blame.  Who sinned? This guy… or his parents? Yet, John has told us that he’d been blind since birth, so it’s unlikely that this baby in utero sinned. So that leaves the parents.  What did they do? 

We all focus on who to blame.  Jesus steers our focus from what God can do.  

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. 

In other words, not his sin, not his parents sin, but just sin.  We live in a broken world, full of sin, and none of us are unscathed by this.  But look how Jesus shifts our focus…

“This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”‭‭John‬ ‭9:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Did this mean that God caused this man to be blind so one day Jesus could come by and heal him? No.  But it means that no matter what has happened to us… God can redeem the pain in our lives. He will use it to show his love, his glory and his power.  

So it’s not so much that everything happens for a reason, but rather that everything can be redeemed.