If God Is Good, Why Do Bad Things Happen?
Pastor Kyle Veach
Whether we admit it or not, we all go searching for answers in a lot of different places. We Google recipes, things to do, and how to parent, but we also search for answers to the deeper questions we carry when life doesn’t make sense. Questions about pain, purpose, and where God is in the middle of it all. One of the biggest questions people ask is this: If God is good, why do bad things happen? Click the link above for the full message.
The Question Behind the Question
This question doesn’t come from curiosity alone. It comes from lived experience. It comes from moments that feel confusing, painful, and sometimes unfair. For some people, that pain is obvious—losing a job, walking through a divorce, or grieving the loss of someone they love. For others, it’s quieter but just as heavy, like migraines that won’t go away, depression that lingers, or temptation that feels relentless no matter how hard they try to fight it.
When we zoom out, the tension only increases. We see children starving, wars being fought, and innocent people suffering, and it raises an even deeper question about the goodness of God. At some point, most of us have had a moment where we’ve thought, God, I know you’re good… but where are you right now? That tension is real, and it’s one the Bible does not ignore.
Making Sense of Suffering
When we face evil and suffering, Christianity does not dismiss it or pretend it isn’t there. Instead, it brings meaning to it and offers a way through it. The Bible is filled with real people experiencing real pain, and it gives us a framework for understanding what we feel.
Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because he grieved deeply over people who refused to turn back to God. David, a man after God’s own heart, cried out in moments of desperation, questioning whether God was listening or even cared. John the Baptist gave his entire life to preparing the way for Jesus, only to be imprisoned and executed in the process. These are not side stories—they are central to the narrative of Scripture.
Asaph, a worship leader and poet, captures this tension in a way that feels almost unfiltered. In Psalm 73, he looks around at the world and struggles to reconcile what he sees with what he believes about God.
Psalm 73:11–14 - “What does God know?” they ask. “Does the Most High even know what’s happening?” Look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain.”
That honesty is important because it reminds us that questioning does not disqualify us. It actually invites us deeper into understanding.
We Often Ask the Wrong Question
When we ask, “Why is this happening?” what we are often really asking is whether we can live a life without pain. At the core, the desire is not just for answers—it is for relief. We want a version of life where suffering does not exist, where everything feels stable, predictable, and safe.
But that kind of life is not real life. A life that is completely controlled, where nothing difficult ever happens, would remove the very things that make love and relationship meaningful. Instead of asking for the absence of pain, there is a different posture we can take. We can begin to ask God how He wants to use what we are walking through, what He might be teaching us, and how He is present even when we don’t understand.
Those questions do not remove the pain, but they shift our perspective from avoidance to purpose.
Love Requires Choice—and That Means Risk
To understand suffering, we have to understand love. Love is only real if it can be chosen. If it is forced, controlled, or manufactured, it is not love at all. This is why God gave humanity free will. From the very beginning, in the story of Adam and Eve, people were given the ability to choose—between good and evil, obedience and rebellion, love and rejection.
God did not want a relationship based on control. He wanted a relationship built on choice. But with that freedom came the possibility of brokenness. If it is possible to choose love, it is also possible to choose sin. And when sin entered the world, it brought with it pain, suffering, and everything we now experience as broken.
This does not mean God stepped away. It means we are living in a world that is not as it was originally created to be. And even in that reality, God chooses to walk with us, not apart from us.
If There Is No God, Who Defines Evil?
One of the most overlooked parts of this conversation is the question of where our understanding of evil actually comes from. We often use suffering as a reason to question God, but we rarely ask what makes something wrong in the first place.
If there is no God, then there is no ultimate authority to define good or evil. There is no consistent standard to measure justice or injustice. And yet, we all have a sense that some things are not just unfortunate—they are wrong. That awareness points to something beyond us.
Our recognition of evil is not evidence against God. It is evidence that there is a moral standard, and that standard comes from Him.
Suffering Isn’t the Absence of Love
It is natural to associate pain with a lack of care. When something hurts, we assume something must be wrong. But when we look at other areas of life, we see that pain can actually serve a purpose.
A dentist may cause temporary pain to address a deeper issue that would only get worse if left untreated. A physical therapist applies pressure and tension to bring healing and strength. A counselor leads someone into difficult memories so that real freedom can take place. A parent disciplines a child because they care about who that child is becoming.
In each of these situations, the pain is not evidence of neglect. It is part of a process that leads to something better. That does not make suffering easy, but it reframes how we understand it.
“I’m a Good Person—Why Is This Happening to Me?”
This question reveals how we tend to measure ourselves. Most of us define goodness by comparison. We look at the people around us and determine where we fall on the spectrum. But that comparison is limited and often misleading.
When we place ourselves next to Jesus instead of others, the standard changes completely. Scripture is clear that none of us are perfect and that all of us have fallen short. Jesus is the only one who lived without sin, the only one who was truly good.
And yet, He chose to suffer.
Jesus Stepped Into Our Pain
Jesus did not stay distant from human suffering. He entered into it fully. He left heaven, was born into poverty, and lived a life marked by rejection, misunderstanding, and hardship. He was falsely accused, beaten, and ultimately crucified in one of the most brutal forms of execution.
In that moment, He cried out:
Matthew 27:46 - “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This was not distant or theoretical suffering. It was real, physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. God did not remain removed from what we experience. He stepped into it and felt it.
GOD GAVE A DIRECT ANSWER TO OUR PAIN AND SUFFERING
While we may not receive a clear explanation for every situation we face, God has given a clear response to suffering. It is not found in a detailed answer but in a person.
John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s love is demonstrated in His willingness to step into our pain and provide a way through it. He took our suffering seriously enough to act, not by removing all hardship immediately, but by offering something greater.
The promise of Scripture is not that we will avoid suffering, but that it will not have the final word. There is hope beyond what we see right now.
The Hope That Changes Everything
The Bible tells us clearly that we will experience suffering and that life on this earth will include pain. But it also gives us a promise that changes how we endure it.
Revelation 21:4 (NLT) - “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.'“
Resources
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller
God, Where Are You?! Finding Strength and Purpose in Your Wilderness by John Bevere
You’re So Strong: On Grief and Letting Go of My Favorite Compliment by Leslie Harter-Berg
