Your Hands and What You Do With Them

There’s a famous question everyone has asked themselves at least one time in their lives and that is, “Why do bad things happen to such good people?” It brings up a very valid point. Pain, illness, abuse, brokenness, betrayal, sorrow, injuries, disappointment, and heartache happen to people on a day to day basis and many times they do not seem to have any purpose whatsoever. Why is a very good question.

I believe pain is inevitable. Jesus said that, “You will have suffering in this world.” John 16:33

Not might, but will. It will happen.

The main idea is: when something unfortunate happens in this world, you never get a definite answer as to why. There’s more happening than our human eyes can comprehend. Someday, We’ll see things in high definition, but as of right now.. We’re stuck with cruddy standard television. Understanding why there is tragedy in this world isn’t about what is here and now, it’s about the peripheral details that are obscured from our view. A great analogy of this is in one of my favorite books, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It simply speaks about how the smallest of things and people have the largest impact on our lives, but that’s an entire blog post in itself I’m sure will occur in the future.

These unfortunate situations to me act like a conduit, or a means of transition or transportation: an arrow. These arrows lead us in the right direction, towards conclusions that I believe satisfy what our heart truly needs and desires. We only have to let it.

To me, many unfortunate situations come to be out of another person’s bad choices. Now I don’t think someone falling and spraining a knee *cough cough* is out of choice, but simply choosing to do good or bad. A person can either choose to do good, or choose to do bad, and those outcomes can have an effect on others. We can choose:

  • To Do Good
  • To Do Bad
  • To Do Nothing

The last two are what causes the pain and suffering.. Confused?

Here’s an example: People ask God why he doesn’t fix the suffering like famine , but to me I know that the world produces enough food to feed everyone, but it is own irresponsibility and selfishness caused by our hands prevents us from eradicating all world hunger. Completely out of God’s will. This same example could be used in a personal sense, heartbreak, sorrow, disappointment, etc. are human feelings in which we have complete control over. It is a conscious decision and we need to learn that whatever is causing such pain, needs to go.

Ultimately, what I’ve seen is that God uses that pain to draw us closer to him; to sharpen our character, to influence others for him. He can draw something good from our pain in a plethora of ways, only if we trust and follow him; and that’s something I find worth it In the End.