Podcast notes Why do bad things happen to good people

Ground rules

Do not say these things to someone who’s grandma just died.  Do not give these points to someone who has just undergone tragedy.  We wouldn’t.  You shouldn’t.

Don’t say “All things work together for good” unless you want to lose some teeth

We are going to talk openly and honestly. We are also going to come at you with our life experience because we have had bad things happen to us.  But please have some compassion. What people need in crisis is compassion not a lecture

What’s you’re go to move when you hear this question?

Really, how good are you? Are you really that good?

What’s the cutoff point?  How good do you have to be so that you can not have bad things happen to you?

The reality is that bad things happen to people.  Good people, bad people, medium people.

God is the only one who is uniquely qualified to bring good things from bad things

So the question is, if God is all powerful and he is all knowing then why doesn’t he step up and change my circumstances?

God obviously doesn’t care about your circumstances.  What i mean by that is that God’s goal for you is to not take you out of all your difficult circumstances.  His goal is to grow you and mature you.  Let’s get real, the hard times are what develop our character more than anything.

This is maturity 101

We can only get perspective when we understand this from an eternal perspective. We think of life as the end goal.  We are wrong.  The end goal is to get to eternity as the people God wants us to be

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

This oft-repeated question says nothing about God, but everything about human beings.

Michael Coren

I. Eternity Makes the Difference

My end, as Mary Queen of Scots said it, is my beginning. And her end was at the sharp point of an axe, as she was beheaded on the orders of her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth

Pain Awakens Us to God

We want, in fact, not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.” CS Lewis

Freedom to Choose

God Is Not Impossible to Find

 if he made himself almost impossible to find, God would be playing cruel games with us and would be loveless.  So he makes himself entirely recognizable and attainable, if we have the slightest inclination to find him. He sent us monarchs, prophets, martyrs, signs and symbols, miracles, and finally his Son, to die in agony for us