Harold S. Kushner wrote the definitive book about “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.” It isn’t just a great book published in 1983, it is “the” book on the subject. After reading it yesterday, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on the subject.
Here is what I know. No one on the face of the earth lives in a just world, from which we can expect fairness. You and I live in an unjust world made up of many different kinds of people. Many of these individuals are unfair to even their closest members of family. That is why bad things happen to others, even to those who are good.
Aside from being human and understanding that we are responsible for not hurting others, we nonetheless discount doing so if it is in our best interest to hurt others. This is a major turning point in how people, you and I, look at life. At the core of this thinking is the question: “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” And yet, what every person fails to get is that God created us to be free to do good or bad. Of course He wants us to do good. But, many people, friends and colleagues, are not good people. They do bad things to others, often for selfish reasons.
God doesn’t step in to stop them because we are free to chose Him and his beliefs over the Earth and its rewards. Irrational and unreasonable behavior are simply what comes from bad people making the lives of good people complicated, challenged, and frustrating. So, how do the good people handle it? One way, a powerful way, is to learn to live with it. How? By knowing that they (the good people) didn’t do anything wrong. There is no reason to feel guilt or shame for the behavior of bad people.
What is important is to understand that God didn’t cause the bad people to hurt the good people either. God doesn’t get involved in that way. He doesn’t stop a colleague from lying about a good person. Remember, human beings were created with the will to decide “this way…God’s way or that way…the bad way.” So, what is the power of believing in God? The answer is simple. He gives up courage and the will to go on when bad people hurt good people. He helps us through prayer to stay the course, to rebuild our lives, regardless of what happens again and again.
God did not send the bad people to hurt the good people. God does not intervene on behalf of the good people to set the bad people straight. As the author mentioned earlier said, through prayer and belief in God, He provides the “…iron in his soul to remain a living person in the fullest sense of the word until the very last day.” Someone who has been hurt doesn’t have to die because he or she has been put aside by the bad people. He or she doesn’t have to spend the rest of their lives asking the questions, “Why did they do it?” or “What do I do now?”
The answer is this: Choose to get on with life. God isn’t going to reach down and punish the bad people. There should be no revenge. Choose a good life and get on with it. God isn’t going to provide the good person the help to stand up and get with it, that is, beyond prayer. He has given each of us the freedom to think and to become the very best each of us can.
There are simply bad people in this world. They will steal and cheat to rise above their inadequacies. Some are even cruel and deadly kinds of people. The best the good person can do is stay away from the evil ones.
If you have been hurt by evil people, don’t get mad and do something crazy. Don’t self-impose loneliness on yourself. Live life and smile. Do your thing, and don’t blame yourself. It is not your fault they are bad. Also, in closing, don’t blame God. If He had not given each of us the 100% freedom to decide “what’s what” about our own individual lives, we wouldn’t be the human beings we are. In other words, He created us to be free and out of that freedom we become the highest human creature on the face of the Earth. God is not responsible for bad people acting bad.
Pray for strength and courage (iron in your backbone) to live the good life; one without causing pain to others. That is the way good people live, and good people are not bad people. Thank you God.
