The day begins. Any given day. A family of five starts out on a drive across town. The crash is sudden. Metal, plastic and flesh are torn apart. Three are dead and tow are severely injured. But the drunk driver in the speeding truck that hit them is merely bruised. Why?
A terrible dictator gets control of an entire nation, and millions suffer his abuses. Why?
The doctor says, I have some bad news," and then he sadly explains that your have cancer. Why?
Every day stories like these unfold. Sometimes we merely hear about them secondhand or on the nightly news, and other times the story is our own. Once we steady ourselves from the shock, we can't help but ask the most natural question in the world: If God is all-powerful and all-good, why do we suffer at all? It's hard to imagine a bigger or more important question. And the fact is, we all ask it sooner or later.
I'm going to give my answer based on example #3, about a doctor who gave bad news, telling me I had cancer. This is from my own battle with cancer, and how my gynecologist handled it. I was at home, and the phone rang, and it was my doctor. He said "I have some bad news for you." He did not say for me to please come to his office so we could speak in person. NO, his way of telling me I had cancer was in a short, five-minute phone call. Cold and impersonal. His exact words were, "we found cancer in your biopsy results." Then he said goodbye, and hung up, leaving me in total shock still holding the phone in my hand. I was waiting for my mom because we were going shopping, so I dried my tears and tried to keep it together in front of her, because I had no clue how the heck I was going to tell my family I had cancer. That isn't something that I could just blurt out. The tears returned when she arrived and I got into the car and she asked me how I was. I broke down and told her, and she was in shock because she kept saying, "are you kidding me? Are you sure?" Anyhoo, we got to the grocery store, and I asked her not to say anything to my dad or sisters and brother. Pop drove me back home after I got groceries, and before he left, I started crying and he asked what's wrong, and I told him I had cancer. He hugged me and told me not to worry, then he pointed to a picture of Jesus that I have on my fridge door. He said, "Do you believe in Jesus?" I said, "Yes, of course," and then Pop said "Then trust him to get you through this."
I'm crying as I write this..lol.. Anyway, after I had some time to process the fact that I had cancer, I started asking questions like "why me" and "what did I do to deserve this" and "why do I have cancer, and yet my oldest sister who smokes like a chimney, doesn't." Did I feel like I was being punished? Yes at first, I did. Then it dawned on me like a "stupid slap" from God, that we ALL face trials and hardships, yet we always think that it happens to "someone else" and not me. I asked God why I had cancer, and the answer came loud and clear. "Why not you? You aren't exempt from disease. We all have a cross to bear, and yours is cancer."
Bad things don't happen to us because we are evil or because we "deserve it." They happen because we live in a fallen, sinful world. They happen because out of the midst of the worst tragedy, God can still make something beautiful out of it.
As to the statement of whether God can prevent bad things from happening, OF COURSE HE CAN. Sometimes though, for reasons known only to him, he allows them to happen. So when bad things happen to you, don't blame God. He has a reason why he allows bad things to befall us. Don't say "why me, Lord? Why did you give me this disease?" Say instead, "I don't understand why you gave me this Lord, but try me!" Like it or not, we all need to accept whatever trials God gives us, whether it's good, bad, or ugly.
*goes and wipes tears*
