{"id":388,"date":"2019-02-20T05:26:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T13:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2019-02-20T05:28:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T13:28:40","slug":"good-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Good God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by James Wheeler<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, I don\u2019t want to come across as insensitive to people who have struggled with this question; on the other, I have to be honest and share that it\u2019s not a question that has ever weighed heavily on me. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have yet to meet any \u201cgood\u201d people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now before you dismiss me as having a very low opinion of people in general, let me just say this: I have a very low opinion of people in general. There \u2013 glad we got that out of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me at least explain why I hold that opinion. See, I have kids. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love my kids, and I think they\u2019re the greatest! However, there\u2019s something I notice about them that I also found to be true about my own childhood (and let\u2019s be honest\u2026 my adulthood as well): they\/we all need to be taught and trained how to do the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t had to teach my children how to lie. I haven\u2019t had to teach them how to say mean things about people. I haven\u2019t had to teach them to be disobedient to me or others in charge. I haven\u2019t had to teach them how to get angry and hit each other. I haven\u2019t had to teach them to be selfish. Somehow they have each had a good handle on how to do and to be all these things without a single how-to lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I have<\/em> had to teach them to tell the truth, to say kind things, to obey, to not lose their temper and keep their hands to themselves, and to think of others first. And I had to be taught all these things as well (and still need to to this day – I think that is why God tends to bless us with saints for spouses!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now to me, that says something. Why is there not at least one parent in this world who has had a different experience, whose child never required an ounce of discipline or correction because the child naturally knew only virtue and goodness? I\u2019ve always found that to be rather curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, while I don\u2019t deny that people have carried out countless achievements that we might view as positive, good, noble \u2013 phenomenal even \u2013 contributions to society, such things don\u2019t whitewash the inherent reality that each of us starts out as something rotten<\/a>, and throughout our lives we strive to be\u2026 less rotten.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why I have such a high opinion of God. And, that is why I have always struggled with a different question than the one originally raised: Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.\u201d<\/p>(Psalm 103:10 NIV)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I personally think that\u2019s pretty good news. Wouldn\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…each of us starts out at something rotten, and throughout our lives, we strive to be… less rotten.”… Continue reading Good God<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,25,26,28],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-children","tag-god","tag-good","tag-people"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p842FN-6g","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}