"Why do bad things happen to good people?"

This phrase—though boiling over with theological inaccuracies—touches on something in our common humanity that sees the state of things as they are and our soul screams, “not, right!” “Not right” that children should suffer from hunger. “Not right” that women & children are trafficked in the suburbs of Atlanta; bought and sold as property; robbed of their dignity.Even our children, if we avoid the common practice of sheltering them from what is ugly in the world, instinctively sense the same thing. Just the other night as we were putting the girls to bed, and doing their devotional, Eden prayed words that we have not overtly taught her.

Despite what we’ve come to believe, God does not delight in our pain. But our pain does give rise to the occasion of God’s radical intervention, and His readily revealing His glory in us. But that’s only half of the equation. In addition to His glory being revealed through our pain, and in our suffering, His glory is revealed in our response to others pain, and others suffering. That’s the other half of the equation. That’s the critical factor we must wrestle with in our hearts: will we shut our eyes to the suffering of others, or show them the beauty of God’s coming Kingdom?

John 9:4-7