If We Serve a Loving God, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
It’s a question that’s been asked for generations.
If God is loving, why is there cancer?
Why do children suffer?
Why do good people experience heartbreak, loss, and unimaginable pain?
I’ve wrestled with those questions too.
Scripture teaches that God created a world that was good—a world without sin. A world that was meant to be heaven on earth.
Then sin entered the world.
And everything changed.
Brokenness spread through creation. Suffering, disease, death, injustice… none of it was part of God’s original design. We don’t live in the world He first created. We live in a world that is longing to be restored.
God could have created us without free will. He could have made every decision for us. But He didn’t.
He gave us the freedom to choose.
To love or to hate.
To forgive or to hold bitterness.
To show kindness or cruelty.
Sometimes, we don’t do very well with that gift.
When I see people choose cruelty over kindness, I can’t help but see the fingerprints of the enemy—the one Jesus called the father of lies and the master of deceit.
On my strong days, I pray, “Lord, let me take him out before You return. Let me end his rule on this earth.”
On my weak days—the days fear creeps in and threatens to overwhelm me—I simply ask God to do it for me. I ask Him to send His angels to protect us.
Our months living in Seattle brought me to my knees more times than I can count.
There was a heaviness there that I can’t fully explain. It felt like we were standing in the middle of a spiritual battlefield, and every single day required us to choose faith over fear.
If I’m honest…
I was scared.
There were days I wondered how much more my heart could take.
But those same months grew my faith more than any season of my life ever has.
Free will allowed sin into the world.
Sin brought brokenness.
And brokenness touches every one of us.
For a long time, I wrestled with another question.
Did I do something to deserve this?
Is my daughter’s suffering somehow because of my own sin?
I’m so thankful that’s not what Scripture teaches.
In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus why a man had been born blind. They assumed someone must have sinned.
Jesus answered,
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
His suffering wasn’t punishment.
It became a place where God’s power was revealed.
You see that same pattern throughout the Bible.
Job suffered.
Joseph suffered.
Paul suffered.
None of them suffered because God had abandoned them.
In fact, some of God’s most faithful servants endured incredible hardship.
Jesus never promised us a life without suffering.
Actually… He promised the opposite.
James writes,
“Consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2–4)
And Jesus tells us,
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Have I grown through this trial?
Absolutely.
Would I have ever chosen this road?
Not for a second.
Have I watched innocent children lose the very battle my daughter is still fighting?
Yes.
Does it still break my heart every single time?
Absolutely.
Even though I believe God has good plans for our family…
Even though my faith is stronger than it’s ever been…
The thought of losing one of my children still terrifies me.
The moment I became a mom, protecting my girls became one of the deepest callings God placed on my heart.
Losing one of them was never something I believed I could survive.
Or ever wanted to imagine surviving.
So do I have the complete answer to why bad things happen to good people?
Why innocent children suffer?
No.
The biblical answer is that we live in a broken world.
But if I’m being completely honest…
My heart still wants more.
I still want to know why.
I still wish I could walk into every hospital room and save every child.
If God had given me the gift of healing, that’s exactly what I’d spend my life doing.
I would save them all.
But that isn’t the gift He’s given me.
Instead, over the years, countless people have told me they’ve seen something different.
They’ve told me God has given me the gift of faith.
Maybe that’s why I’m still standing.
Maybe that’s why these battles haven’t crushed me.
Maybe my calling isn’t to heal every child…
Maybe it’s to point hurting people to the One who can heal every heart.
So my prayer has become simple.
Lord…
Let me see You in every moment of suffering.
In every loss.
In every heartbreak.
When everyone else sees only pain, let me see Your fingerprints.
Keep drawing hurting hearts back to Yourself.
And when our time on earth is over, I pray heaven is so full that every room You’ve prepared is occupied by someone we love.
A truly crowded heaven.
Because even when we don’t understand the suffering…
We can still trust the One who has already overcome the world.
Why Does a Loving God Allow Pain?,
