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Inevitably, when bad things happen to good people, folks ask “why?” and “where was God when the bad thing happened?” At the time of the writing of this article, we have had several tragedies in the Unites States. The one closest to home was the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where nearly 20 people were gunned down by an evil, cowardly shooter.
There are five possible causes of such bad events:
1. The activity of Satan (Job 1-2).
2. The fallen nature of the world (ie the Tower of Siloam, Luke 13:4ff).
3. The evil activity of others (Luke 13:1).
4. We are often our own worst enemies (Proverbs 20:4).
5. Sometimes God allows bad things to happen, but for good reason (See 1 Kings 16–18 where God confronts Ahab with a severe drought).
When these bad things happen, we need to remember that when you hurt, God hurts too. For He said, “In all their affliction He was afflicted…In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:8-9). The Message version puts it this way: “In all their troubles, he was troubled, too.”
God didn’t cause the Uvalde shooting. He certainly didn’t tell the coward in Uvalde to murder children, their teachers and his grandmother. But we need to understand that God hates these things and he loves his people so much that he wants us to respond by following his example of love.
Larry Fitzgerald
Woodlawn Church of Christ
Abilene, TX