If “your” God is so good, why is there cancer and suffering? These are the types of arguments atheists and agnostics may give to God’s (non) existence. These are hard arguments to navigate because as Christians we try to show God as a loving father and these things don’t necessarily line up with our narrative. Why do bad things happen? Is it God’s will for people to die or even worse suffer? Things can be complicated, but often we can make sense of it through the lens of a farmer planting a seed. A farmer plants a seed, like wheat and expects that he is going to harvest a crop of wheat. Life can work like that too,

Any good parent knows that your children will eventually be left to make their own choices. If we look to God as a “Father” then we should be able to understand as parents ourselves. When your children reach adult-hood they are left to make their own choices and you hope that they are good ones but there is no guarantee. If your children make bad decisions, does it make you love them any less? I hope not. Does it exempt them from the consequences of their actions? No, it doesn’t. This really is a good example of the biblical philosophy that you reap what you sow. If your child picks a mate that shows signs of abusive behavior but ignores it thinking that they will change them will most times harvest an abusive relationship. That really shouldn’t be a surprise. Bad choices reap bad results.

This world’s version of biblical philosophy is scientific law. Even scientists couldn’t argue that what goes up must come down. Some things are just logical and backed by logic and reason. If you put this theory into a practical application, if you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day for thirty years, the odds of you suffering from a smoking related illness are severely increased. That really shouldn’t be a surprise. Bad choices reap bad results.

The thief (devil) comes only to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come so they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 NKJV

I perceive that most people do understand that bad choices reap bad results and that death is inevitable, but when it happens to someone deemed innocent (like a child) it is unrealistic to think the innocent made bad choices. How do you reconcile that it is just God’s will for that innocent to suffer? I would argue that this is not God’s will for anyone, but people look for answers and this is not an easy answer. Sometimes there is a purpose. As an example, God said that Saul/Paul must suffer much in his name, but that was his ultimately Paul’s choice. Sometimes, someone else may have made a bad choice that affects an innocent person like leaving a door unlocked or a child unattended, but that can be logically taken back to a choice. What about when it just doesn’t make sense? How can you reconcile that? The answer is that sometimes, you just can’t.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV

Ultimately, if we make the case for all suffering stemming from bad choices, then the original sin by Adam and Eve in the garden is really the root cause of every tragic event in the world. God’s intention was that we would be blissfully ignorant to suffering and death. Adam and Eve made a bad choice and we are living with the consequences many millennia later. Sometimes the rewards are not in this world but in the next which is also hard to reconcile. I accept that God knows so much more than my puny but arrogant mind can understand and a lot of humans just can’t wrap their heads around it. It is hard to think that you are unable to control all that happens and it may be up to an invisible, omnipotent being that you can’t prove exists.

Thankfully, if we look for hope and purpose to this life in the bible, we are directed to a choice that Jesus made. The choice to suffer and die so that all may be given a chance to make a CHOICE to follow His example and eventually receive eternal life.