Why do bad things happen to good people? This is one of the questions that everyone has to deal with in one way or another and to a variety of degrees. I wish I could provide everyone who is a childhood sexual abuse survivor with a satisfying answer, but I know this is beyond my capabilities. However, I have come to some conclusions of my own, mostly regarding my faith.
Even if you don’t believe in God or a higher power, understanding the relationship between good and bad is important. For one thing, humans cannot understand good or bad without experiencing the opposite. If we only experienced good in our lives, how would we know that something great is occurring with us? Every living thing has a balance it must maintain. Our bodies shiver when we are cold and sweat when we are warm. We eat when we are hungry and stop when we are full (most of the time). We sleep when we are tired and wake when we are rested. Just as our bodies experience the rises and falls of life, so we experience good and bad together. It’s all about balance.
If you do believe in God or a higher power, it’s still not as easy to understand the relationship between good and bad. I do know that when I’m in a great place, I often am not as thankful as I should be for the positive parts in my life. However, when I’m going through a trial, I’m certainly going to think about it and try to understand why me? Yet since I do believe in God, who am I to question when I have good times and when I have bad times? I’m not the one who has the power in my life, Jesus does. Each time I experience something good, I should be thankful and give Him the praise He is due. Each time I experience something terribly, I should cling to Him even more because Jesus is the one who will get me through it.
Regardless, all of us are going to experience both good and bad. How we choose to live our lives during those times is extremely important. We certainly don’t have to be happy when something traumatic happens; we are entitled to our own feelings. We can be happy, sad, angry, frustrated, joyfully, and miserable. All of the emotions are perfectly reasonable and justifiable to experience. Also, know that all of these things will pass.
Harry L. Estes 