Do you ever question why bad things happen to Christ-followers?  Why was I in a wreck on Sunday night?  Why is such and such person battling depression?  Why is this person going through this life situation?  Whenever negative life happens, we have a tendency to question.  I have also discovered that a lot of people automatically assume that there is some spiritual reason why certain bad things happen.  This person was in a wreck so something must be going on in their life.  This person is struggling emotionally so there must be a spiritual issue.  We have a tendency to assume negative life = something is wrong.

Here are a couple of thoughts about this concept…

~ I am not sure it portrays the God we serve.  God is love.  He is not a vengeful Judge that is waiting to send speeding cars in our direction for every sin we commit.  If so, He would be very busy.  In reality I am sure there are not many times in my life where I am not struggling with some type of sin – even if it is the internal battle of pride or worry.  If negative life situations were always linked to sin, we would live life under some dire circumstances.  God knows us fully and completely.  Does He send life situations to capture our attention? Obviously.  Is every life situation an attention grabber or indicate there is something deeply wrong in our lives?  No.

~ We live in a fallen world.  I regularly warn people not to see a demon behind every flat tire.  We live in a world that is simply affected by sin.  Bad things happen because sin has distorted the entire system in which we live. Most of the time a flat tire is simply a flat tire.  It does not mean Satan is attacking me.  Wrecks often happen simply because a person was not paying attention like he should (speaking from experience). It does not mean there was some supernatural cause.  Life happens and when you live in a fallen world – bad things simply happen.  Thankfully one day sin will be taken away and we will be able to live life without the consequences and misfortunes of a fallen world.

- We are human and as humans we have emotions and struggles and difficulties.  We live in a finite body that is also affected by the fall.  Sometimes discouragement has less to do with my spiritual condition and more to do with my external circumstances.  Sometimes I simply get down. I get drained. I get tired. I get discouraged and depressed. Does this mean there is some huge sin in my life? No.  It may simply mean I am feeling the affects of my limited, finite flesh. Our bodies are corruptible and perishable.  We have not exchanged them for our incorruptible and imperishable glorified bodies at this point. So guess what?  I am going to go through seasons of life where my corruptibility weighs on me.

- When life situations happen, we do need to examine our hearts and lives.  These periods of life should draw us closer to God and cause us to depend more on Him and less on us.  Life situations are used to prune, refine, shape, and mold us. They grow us into Christ-likeness. So we should use them to grow.

Life is tough. Life is difficult. Sometimes life simply sucks and we are forced to deal with our own limits as finite, sinful human beings who are 100% dependent on a God who is everything we are not.  Amidst the difficulties of life, remember sometimes bad things happen just because.

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