When disaster strikes it is often asked, "where was God when this happened", or, "why did God allow this to happen". Firstly, it is interesting to note that the people most likely to ask these questions are not Christians, often they are people who claim no relationship with God whatsoever. It would seem that they are perfectly happy to go about their lives in normal circumstances without any thought of God, let alone relationship with him, but when trouble comes, God is first on their list of people to blame. They have probably never acknowledged and thanked God for blessings in their lives such as health, family, the birth of a newborn baby etc, as they do not see that God has anything to do with these things. God, apparently, only has bad things to deliver to the world.
When people ask me, "why did God allow this [whatever] to happen", I start to answer by asking them a question; "If you were God, what sort of a world would you create?" Usually the person responds with an answer similar to this; "If I was God, I would create a world where there was no pain, no suffering, where everyone had enough food to eat and a roof over their head and where there was love and peace." I then compliment them on their choice. Certainly their world sounds a lot better than the world we live in where pain, suffering and death run rampant.
However, as the person begins to feel that they have come up with a great idea, I have to break the disturbing news to them that they have just plagiarised someone else's idea. In fact they are taking credit for a plan that was implemented over 4000 years ago! A quick look at the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Bible reveals that at that time, such a world already existed. Here we have an account of this world how it was created to be. God himself declared that it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). There was no hate, no crime, no devastation. God had created the perfect world.
So what happened? Something or someone obviously contaminated this perfect creation. Sadly, the finger points directly at us. Starting from our first parents, all of humanity has turned against God and ruined the perfection we once had. The Bible puts it this way, "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way." (Isaiah 53:6) Each of us think that we have the best answers to how we should run our own lives. We believe in freedom of choice and our rights to do as we wish. But by stepping outside the protection of God's way, and making our own, we have turned God's perfect creation into a disaster area. We destroy the environment around us and even our fellow humans because of our selfish nature.
Now we begin to see the answer to the initial question. Firstly, God does not make bad things happen, humans do. God does not go around planting bombs or holding up the local gas station. Clearly we see that all pain and suffering comes from humanity's own hand and the fact that we have stepped outside God's plan. Every time I catch a cold or a flu, I know that our first parents never knew such sickness. They were created so that they would never even taste death. Sadly, pain, sickness and death are what we brought on ourselves. As the Bible puts it, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", and unfortunately for us, "the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 3:23 & 6:23) The Bible is not just talking about physical death, but an eternity in hell, separated from God. If that were the end of the story, we would all be in a hopeless situation. Gladly the verse continues "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord".
Sometimes people then ask, "well if all this is true, why doesn't God just take control of these people's lives who are out there planting bombs and killing people?" Once again I begin to answer by asking them a question: "have you submitted control of your own life over to God?" They slowly answer "no" as the point of my question hits them. God's perfect will is given no more authority in their own life than the killer's life. How then can they fairly expect God to control other people's lives and actions when they won't even let him into their own! It is out of God's mercy that he allows each new day in which to give us the opportunity to come into relationship with him. God could just come to take over the world and give us all what we all rightly deserve. Unfortunately, as we have just seen, what we deserve is not an attractive outcome! The Bible states that one day Jesus will return to this earth as judge, but that in the meantime we have the chance to make sure his impending return is a wonderful thing to look forward to, rather than anticipating the dreaded consequences of rebelling against him.
God does not enjoy seeing the pain and suffering in this world made by his rebelling creation, and he will not allow it to go on forever. God has not left us alone in our own mess. Whether good or bad things are in our life at any particular moment, God is in the same place he has always been; waiting for us to give up our attempts to rule ourselves and this world, and submit to his rescue plan, which leads to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
