David

My friend David read the blog that I posted just a few hours ago (you should probably read that one before this one so you'll know what I'm talking about) and sent me something he had written. He said that no one really knows about his blog, so I could post this on mine in a response to my last blog if I wanted to. And I do.

So here it is:

This week I've been dealing with a measure of guilt at the fact that I have two healthy babies. My wife and I found out that we were pregnant a couple of weeks after my best friend and his wife lost their twins due to pregnancy complications. We found out that we were having twins and announced to the world Tanya's pregnancy the same week as another couple we knew, and this couple is now having to come to terms with the fact that they are going to have to let their son go as his brain is underdeveloped to sustain his life. My friends have been asking, "why do bad things happen to good people?" My question since Saturday has been why we are so blessed as to have two healthy babies when so many close to us have lost their children.

My answer to this question is not easy to swallow. It doesn't make me feel any better and doesn't sit well with what we would like to believe about God. There are several things about my faith that rub against my heart and my mind and are not what I want to hear, but there are things about my friends and my wife and my family members that aren't exactly the way that I would wish them, so I have to expect the same with my God.

The question that I've heard many times over the past week is an old one: "why do bad things happen to good people?" From a historical Christian perspective, this question is backwards. The Bible says that no one is good. From Adam and Eve until now, our species has been diseased. I know a couple who recently celebrated the first birthday of their daughter, who has a genetic disease that puts her in constant pain and will eventually kill her. Both of her parents were carriers for the gene that causes this disease. No one blames the parents for having a child, we simply accept that the child inherited a disease that is fatal. The Bible tells us that all humans have inherited the disease of sin which is fatal for all of us.

I've heard since I was a child that God has a reason for bad things to happen, that it is part of God's plan, that it is "God's will" and that He has a purpose in it. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT PAIN, SUFFERING, DISEASE, AND DEATH ARE A PART OF GOD'S WILL. God does not will that parents will lose children, or that husbands will lose wives to cancer or that children will lose parents in car accidents. God's will was that we would live in constant communion with Him, but this plan was ruined by our ancestors. Our inheritance, as a result, is death.

We are all evil and broken apart from God. We deserve bad things to happen to us, but we all instead see ourselves as good and therefore expect good things. Rather than being consumed by the bad things that happen, we need to be thankful for every thing good that happens around us and to us because it is undeserved. Every time that a healthy child is born we need to thank God that he blessed us with something we don't deserve. Every day that we wake up we need to thank God for his blessing. Every moment that God does not destroy our entire world for our wickedness, we need to thank Him for his mercy in giving us a chance to be better than we were the day before.