Today is September 11, the fourth aniversary of the World Trade Center Terrorist attacks. I noticed a lot of speeches and sermons around today were focused on that, so I will, too. During that sorrowful day, many spiritual questions were running running through the mind of several, even those considered non-Christian. Questions were such as: "Why would God allow this?","Why would this be in God's plan/will?","Why do bad things happen to good people?","What did we do to suffer from this?" I will input my view on these questions.

"Why would this be in God's plan/will?"
In the Lord's prayer, we say, "Thy will be done." But when we say that, do we really know what we are getting into? We are offering to give up everything that we want for the Lord. We tend to think that God's Will has all good things. Of course, we have bible verses that backs this up. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down by the Father of Heavenly Lights who never turns like shifting shadows." [James 1:17] "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and future." [Jeremiah 29:11]. But I think we also need to remember bad things are in God's Will as well. It was God's Will for fire to rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was God's Will for the world to be flooded out, killing all but one family and two of every animal. It was God's Will for there to be a drought in Israel for 3 1/2 years during King Ahab's reign, causing a famine. Bad things happen in God's Will, but just as God promises in Jeremiah 29:11, it will all be for the good in the future.

"Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Thinking about this question, you could also flip this question around for another hard to ponder question. "Why do good things happen to bad people?" Think about it. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, but still have been caught. Sadaam Hussein is responsible for mass genocide, but still hasn't had a trial and been brought to justice.

The human theory says that good things should happen to good people, and bad things should happen to bad people. The Hindus actually have a name for this: Karma. But all humans believe this: Christians, hindus, whatever. What comes around, goes around. But we use the term "good" so loosely. "There is no one righteous, not one." [Romans 3:10] In Romans 3:10, righteous has the same meaning as perfect or good. Jesus says: "Why do you call me good? No one is good - except God alone." [Mark 10:18] There is no one perfect, there is no such thing as a "good person". Therefore, according to the human theory: we all deserve bad things to happen to us because we ourselves are not good, we are bad. Whether it is Bin Laden, Sadaam Hussein, George Bush, John Kerry, Billy Graham, Pope Benedict XVI, your pastor, your school teachers, Graham Holcomb, or even yourself, we are all bad and deserve bad things to happen to us. We deserve it. But God loves us so much, he had compassion and mercy on us, despite how bad we are. So he provided a good plan for us.

Let's go back to Mark 10:18. Jesus said that there is no one good, but God. We all know that Jesus is God, so Jesus is good. Therefore, according to the human theory, only good things should've happen to Jesus when he was human. Good things did happen when Jesus was on earth, but bad things happened as well. Jesus experienced the same pain we did. He was even betrayed, beaten, executed by cruicified (the worst execution method in human history), mocked and abandoned (emotional pain). Even Jesus, the only good person in human history had bad things happen to him. Maybe because he was in the prescense of bad people. So it all comes down to another question:

1. 
   "What did we do to suffer from this?"

In eighth grade, my bible teacher gave the response to this question and I agree with it. There are four main reasons why we suffer:

1. Because of our sins [John 5:14]
2. Because of our parents'/ancestors' sins [Exodus 20:5,6; Jeremiah 32:18]
3. Because we are human
4. So the works of God may be displayed [John 9:3]

Since we are all bad sinners, we suffer. There are bible verse to back this up. But remember the fourth reason. Once again, Jeremiah 29:11 reminds that the Lord will give a good future and not hurt us. Therefore the bad things that plague us in life will turn to good and we might become closer to God through it, get rid of doubt, or may be a good witness to the goodness of our loving God. Whatever the cause we must remember Jesus can identify with it. He will help us through it and reward us for enduring it.

(Wow, these posts keep getting longer......)