Why do bad things happen to good people?

So many people, righteous people, seem to suffer some of the most horrific tragedies, and we are left scratching our heads wondering, why her, why him or even why me? Let’s get one thing straight, NO one is righteous, NONE!  (Romans 3:23) There is only One who was righteous, without sin, I think we can all agree on that.

I’m a silver jewelry freak. No, I don’t collect it, but it’s all I wear. I don’t know why, but I don’t like to wear gold. So, I’m going to use silver here as mental picture of life being refined.  So, let’s look at silver in its natural state.  When silver nuggets are mined in their raw form, they are mixed with several elements and impurities which have to be refined out in order to make that beautiful shining necklace, earrings, or bracelet that pretties up our flawed bodies.  Are you starting to get the picture? The only process to remove the impurities of the silver nugget is to boil or melt the silver in hot liquid. The hotter the fire, the more times it is boiled, the finer the silver becomes, until it can reach a point of 99.9% pure. It can never reach 100%, nor can we ever reach 100% pure, so don’t even try. Shoot for that 99%, and you won’t be frustrated. 

The most we can be refined is six times because we can’t make flawless state. Now does that mean you will go through only six trials, of course not, but the heat of the flames determines the refining process.  If you have been selected to go through that refining process, consider yourself honored above many inthe sight of God. I of course, need to refer by to my BBF’s (Biblical  Best Friends) Let’s look at a few people honored by God.

Let’s begin with my favorite hunk of raw silver, non-other than the biggest screw-up of the entire Bible. Friends, it doesn’t get worse than Samson in the book of Judges. Of all the Biblical heroes, he was the most flawed, had the most impurities, yet, God chose to refine him. The trouble he got into was his own fault. The man had an eye for women that took over the commonsense in his brain. He didn’t just love women, but he loved bad women. He wasn’t satisfied with a woman from his hometown or tribe, no, he had to have Philistine women. All of them got him into some hot water, or boiled. It took the hottest test to finally refine him, years in a Philistine dungeon after a treacherous betrayal by one of those poorly chosen Philistine women, with his eyes poked out and his hair finally grown back, the truth of who GOD chose him to be, as well as what kind of man he should have been, finally became clear as a bell, right before his non-existent now, eyes.

The last day of his life, he did his greatest deed,  and did what he was supposed to do before all those women distracted him from his purpose, it was then, as a prisoner being mocked that Samson’s supernatural strength returned by faith, and was able to take down main supporting columns of the “theater” and take out all the Philistines, along with himself as the sacrificial lamb in this final act. 

Notwithstanding, Samson being the roughest of raw silver, there were several others, which GOD had put into His Love letter to us, for the very reason of showing us just how refined and shining we raw humans can become with a some Divinely placed logs in the fire, in our fiery furnace of affliction.  To name just a few others, there’s the greatest of the Hebrew Scriptures, and that would be of course, Moses, a well-educated man with a temper, trained for one-hundred and twenty years. Forty of them he spent learning from the finest institutions and teachers the known world had to offer, then hidden forty years after his temper and bad timing chased him to a life hidden with a foreign people, taking care of their sheep, and at last, then forty more years in the wilderness, leading near two million contemptuous revilers, until the first generation died of, he lead the next generation to the border of the Promise Land. This was the land promised over four-hundred years earlier, to their father Abraham.  Yet, Moses was only able to go as far as the border, because like all of us, he was not perfected beyond human status, which brought his life to an end in the wilderness, just beyond the reach of the promise, he trained all his life to attain. 

 Jacob, the trickster, 100 years of wrestling with God, the father of the twelve tribes which produced Joseph, who was trained first as a slave, then in Potiphar's Prison, to be placed by GOD’s hand in the second highest position of power in the world, that of, Prime minister of Egypt.  That heat of that refining is what saved not only Egypt, increasing its dominion, but saved his entire race of seventy people, enough for GOD to grow them to near two million in the safety of the womb of Goshen. There were countless other, which we will come in contact with in the course of our lifetimes, others who will inspire us with their flaws, and encourage us on with their flames of affliction to become that which GOD has designed for us since before the creation of the world.

So, the next time you are tempted to say, why me? Instead of saying in a groaning complaining tone, I suggest we ought to in humble adoration with a thankful heart, bend the knee, bow the head, and in humility, say, “Oh, God, why me? What good do you see in me that I should be so honored to go through these fiery furnaces?