God's Most Beautiful Creation

If there is a God, why do bad things happen?

This is an Essay I wrote for my writing class. I wrote the essay in this topic because my heart reaches out to you guys, and I know that many of you asked this question before. I want you guys to know that, yes, God is real and suffering does happen, but things happen for a reason. Jeremiah 29: 11 says that he has a plan for you, not to hurt you,but to give a hope and future.

"We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it."
— -C.S Lewis (The Problem of Pain)

This is a question that a lot of people ask, when something tragic, or horrid happens in their lives. We all struggle with doubts, even Christians do. We ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people, or why do we suffer?”, “Is God listening or does he even care?” We tend to think that if there is a God, he is just a big man upstairs. We tend to think that God has forsaken us and he stopped loving us.

Do we realize that God is just calling us back to him? He wants us to know him, to have an intimate relationship with him. We are like the Israelites who go our own way when life is good. But when something bad happens, we turn and cry out to God for mercy, to save us.

C.S Lewis compares God, with a parachute. An airman keeps his parachute with him in the airplane, just in case of emergencies. But he goes on to say that he hopes that he’ll never use it. We, in the same way, know that there is pain but we hope we’ll never deal with pain. But why is there pain? Why do we suffer sometimes? I think God allows us to experience pain, because it makes us realize that we need him, and in a way it makes us want to seek after God.

But we don’t like pain; we think it is God punishing us. Well maybe, maybe that could be true; perhaps God can use pain as a punishment. There are times in the Bible, God allowed the Israelites to suffer, because they turned there backs on him. But the reasons why he allowed the Israelites to suffer, was because he wanted them to realize they sinned and confess their
sins and repent. It says in 2 Chronicles 7: 14:

“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

Our sinful nature is not the only reason why we suffer, there are other reasons to, I don’t know why, so I can’t explain. We suffer now, but God promises when he takes those who accept his son Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and believe in him, they’ll live in heaven with eternal life. Heaven is a place where there is no suffering or pain; and though we may not understand why we suffer, God will make known to us everything so we may not need to understand why. We just need to believe and trust God.


Again: A song from the band Flyleaf

"I love the way that your heart breaks
with every injustice and deadly fate
Praying it all be new
and living like it all depends on you

Here you are down on your knees again
trying to find air to breathe again
Only surrender will help you now
I love you please see and believe again

I love that you’re never satisfied
with face value wisdom and happy lies
you take what they say and go back and cry
you’re so close to me that you nearly died

Here you are down on your knees again
trying to find air to breathe again
Only surrender will help you now
I love you please see and believe again

they don’t have to understand you
be still
wait and know I understand you
be still
be still

Here you are down on your knees again
trying to find air to breathe again
Only surrender will help you now
The floodgates are breaking
and pouring out

Here you are down on your knees
trying to find air to breathe
I love you please see and believe again

Here you are down on your knees again
trying to find air to breathe again
Right where I want you to be again
See and believe!"

My Obituary

My Obituary
Mon, 08/24/2009

I want people to remember me by the way I have acted, the way I had shown Christ in me through my actions and my attitude. I admit that I don't always act the way I should, and I don't always have a good attitude, but it is just something I have to work on. I feel that it is important to act in such a way that people know that you belong to Christ---that you're different. Because you never know, you may be the only Bible that people will ever read. If people see you as a hypocrite then how will they ever know the truth? The Bible says that you're supposed to have the mind, and the attitude of Christ, we're supposed to reflect Jesus in everything we do. Here are some verses that really moved me:

Philippians 3: 12-14
"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Hebrews 4: 11-13
"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any double edged sword, piercing even to the divisions of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Philippians 4: 15-16
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind."

Romans 12: 1-2
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Galatians 2: 20
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life to which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself to me."

Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things."

1 John 3: 16- 20

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you before you life and death, blessings and curse; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey his voice, and that you may cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

I want to leave the kind of legacy that people will look at me and say wow I want to be like her someday. I always loved this song from Classic Crime called "Say the word", the chorus goes like this: "Are you different? Could I be Different too? 'Cause nobody knows you like I do..." I want people to say that of me--to want to be different because someone else was different. I want to be the person that has left a blessing on so many people, that inspired them to make a change--a difference. I want to leave a chain reaction of hope that we can make thing better in life.

I also want to be remembered as a person who never dropped her arms, who never gave up and reached her goal. I want to be the runner running the race holding her torch, and never looking back but towards the goal. I want to be remembered as a nurse who knew how to save a life. Who made a difference in little childrens lives. Who gave them a hope, and told them of a savior plans for them to have a hope and future.

When I graduate college I wanted to be a RN nurse, who helped little children that have a cleft lip and a cleft palate. I want that dream to be a part of that legacy.

I want to be remembered as not someone who was selfish and arrogant, but some one who is selfless--and who has touched the lives of others. I want to be remembered as a person who is loving and who is merciful--who forgives. But I can't be that because I'm not Jesus, I am not perfect. But he who has made a good work in me will make it perfected and complete when Jesus comes again. I also want to try to be like Jesus, though I can't do it on my own strength, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So, therefore I must try my best.