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!"