Bad Things Happen

I hear it all the time from non Christians “if God is good then why does He let bad things happen”. God has repeatedly tried to teach humans to be good, what good looks like, and given humans a helper to help them be good. God isn’t responsible for terrible things that befall humans, humans are to blamed for most of their misery: war, car accidents, cancer. You think you should be entitled to fill your lungs or soil with toxics and not be harmed? God doesn’t inflict you with misery, what He doesn’t do is save you from the consequences of your actions (or possible those of others). Since I’ve become a parent I understand that, children need to suffer the consequences of their actions, if they don’t, they don’t learn and they never become better and wiser people. You need to learn, and try and make the world a better place. As Ghandi said, “be the change you want to see in the world” – which could be taken as a summary of Jesus’ parables of the oak seed.