Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? Options

[luck4mike]

My wife and I have a good friend that just died very young from cancer. I don't believe in coincidences, but as a Christian how am I supposed to making sense of this?

[Glen]

Hi Mike! It's very difficult for us Christians to come to terms with the physical death of a loved one. My brother died from cancer a 51, leaving a 16 year-old daughter and 13 year-old son. Within 11 weeks, my Mom died, then my sister a couple years later. During those times I went through much the same struggle with God. I'll share with you the understanding I came to.
First, for those who died, physical death is just a transition to eternal life for those who believe in God. They are far better off than their illness would allow them here on Earth. Paul refers to death as planting our weak, temporary body as a seed for a permanent, eternal body.
Second, though it's difficult for us to accept while we're grieving, bad things happen to good and bad people alike. Jesus said, "it rains on the just and the unjust." The Bible teaches that sickness and death entered the world through the sin of Adam...not our sin. Yes, we reap what we sow, but we're also reaping Adam's crop. That's why God made a way through Jesus for us to be reconciled to God.
Third, though everything happens for a reason, it isn't always for us to know the reason. My brother's cancer led him to Jesus and brought our family closer than we had ever been. It revealed the selfishness and corruption of the pastoral staff I was working with, ending that ministry and beginning this one. Really, we won't have a clue how much good God is doing during these times until, like your friend, we're with God. Have faith that God never wastes a hurt and begin to try and see the good God is doing.
I hope this helps a little. I can tell you from experience, nothing makes loss easy to take. God will understand if you shake your fist at heaven and express the hurt you feel, like I did. Sometimes I think it's the most honest prayer, telling our Father we don't understand why He let us get hurt. I'll be praying for you.

[resonance]

Suffering and pain in the world are complex issues to contend with. Why would an all-powerful and supremely good God cause so much apparently needless suffering? There is a quote I read somewhere that has personally helped me with this, but take from it what you may as it is not actually scriptural -

"Christ died not so that men might not suffer, but so that there suffering might be like his."

It's possible that that person's early death may have prevented even greater pains which he may have experienced down the road. You must also remember that God is fully aware of each of us in relationion to salvation, and perhaps he was taking that person home at a point when he was as close to God as this world would allow. I am no theologan, but I consider these things a lot. I had a step brother who died a few years back in his early twenties. His life up to that point had been rather chaotic and he battled with drugs and also lost custody of his son to his girlfriend. He had voluntarily entered rehab and stayed for months until they released him and, almost as soon as he came back into town, he died. They said it was unknown causes and that the only drugs in his system were the ones that the rehabilitation clinic had prescribed to him.

I don't know what his state with the Lord was, but God certainly does, and the same can be said for your friend. God has a purpose for each of us and a time allotted to us on earth and, to be honest, why would anyone want to waste unnecessary time in this world if God were to call them home?

Just something to think about.