thinking.

this is a blog i posted on myspace. i wrote it 6/19/09 & just decided to post it here in case i wanted to reference to it and just to have all my bloggings together.

"why do bad things happen?" more importantly, "why do bad things happen to good people?"
i hate this question.
it's always asked, yet never answered. in the rare occasion that an answer is given, it is normally "it's a test from God."
i hate that answer as well.
why would God cause us physical and emotional torture to teach us a lesson? call it discipline, but it still seems harsh coming from the gentle, loving, gracious God we hear about every Sabbath.
obviously, i disagree with that answer. i formerly believed that God just let people die when they truly believed in Him. for example, in the case of death maybe He just let them pass when he knew they trusted Him to keep them from straying away from the church in the future. i don't believe that anymore. that seems to be something a controlling and insensitive God would do. it would completely deny freedom of choice.
now i think i may have found a part of the answer to this question (pertaining to death at least). maybe God takes people when they are ready, but when good can also come out of the situation. sickness and disease overtake us due to sin in this world. when we made the decision to sin we opened "pandora's box". once again, it was our choice. God can't interfere with that. what He can do is try to help us along the way. maybe He lets people die to save them from discomfort, pain, and suffering. although it will hurt the deceased's loved ones, it also brings them closer to Him because let's face it, we're closest to God when we are suffering and facing trials. if bad things didn't happen, we would all live life believing we didn't need Him and even believing that maybe He didn't exist. although it seems as though so many people already believe that, there is still the remnant that hold this truth.
i don't know if this makes sense to you all. maybe this seems blatantly obvious and i've just been missing this answer. i'm sorry if this is the case and i just wasted your time reading this superbly long blog, but the answer just hit me. i think that this is a question that can only be answered through experience when you search for it.
i'm starting to believe that good may come out of every situation. . .

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9