Why do bad things happen?

One of life’s most famous questions.

Following the destructive Typhoon in the Philippines, the terrorist attack at Westgate, a lady gang raped for endless days in Uganda; just open a newspaper, we see bad things happening each day (1 of the reasons I do not read newspapers or watch/listen to news).

I believe we live in a fallen world (Adam and his chic did this) and because of it, there are some natural things that will happen, things that will be bad and/or done by bad people because of the evil in this fallen world. Earthquakes in Haiti were just the natural results of tectonic plates rubbing against each other; the Typhoon was caused by a storm that drew lots of heat from the ocean and reached peak intensity when reaching the island, the Westgate tragedy was done by bad bad people as were the rapists.

We honestly cannot say God did all these. “Those who are submitted to God have supernatural help to deal with life in a fallen world and those who don't have a relationship with the Lord find how limited their natural abilities really are.”

We cannot think that God did these things, for if that is the case then we should not try and help or pray against them coz then we will be going against God’s will. If God is doing all these, lets us get out of the way and let God do his thing. Sounds ridiculous, right?

Blaming God for tragedies has turned some people against God.

Adam’s sin not only affected mankind, but the animals “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals” (Gen 3:14) – meaning, the livestock and wild animals were also cursed; the world as well “Cursed is the ground because of you”- (Gen 3:17). Things are now not perfect!

This is why we need to study the word to know what we have, to be able to live in this fallen world. Jesus was born in a fallen world. He lived in it for 33 years, and he too dealt with natural forces-storms and winds (Mark 4:39), hunger, sadness, fear etc. I believe the reason he rose from the dead was to defeat the curses and redeem for us the authority that Adam lost; and then God gave the apostles revelation to tell us how to live with this new authority that we now have in Christ.

But it takes knowledge and persistence to grow and develop our God given authority to the point of making a difference in our lives especially in times of disaster and suffering.