“To the divine providence it has seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil things, by which the good shall not be tormented. But as for the good things of this life, and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both; that we might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the ills which even good men often suffer.”

St. Augustine of Hippo in The City of God

This is perhaps a partial answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people. I am reminded of Jesus’ words,

“He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt 5:45).

What strikes me about this is that I should not be so quick to complain when things don’t go the way I think they ought to go. God has a bigger plan and is working all things out according to that plan.

Joseph said this to his brothers after revealing his identity to them:

“So it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:8).

The lesson is that God was sovereign over the choices that the brothers made for Joseph; nothing that they did was outside the control of God. By inference, we can assume that in the same way, the choices that others make for use are also under God’s control.

But what about the choices we make for ourselves? Does it not stand to reason that God also knows about them and has considered them in his plan? Of course it does.

Why then do we beat ourselves up over the bad choices we have made? They were no surprise to God and he will use them to shape us into what he wants us to be.

Joseph teaches us that it is counter productive to burn calories over the bad choices of others, God anticipated them and used them to accomplish his plan. But should we not also learn that it is useless to get locked down in regret over our own choices? Remaining in regret is a dead end street (Tweet This).

History bears this out. Off the top of my head, the only Biblical hero that I can think of that doesn’t have something really embarrassing on his resume is Daniel. All the rest did things which would merit the attention of TMZ and others who expose dirt and intrigue.

Yet, those heros have been used by God to bring about the recovery of what was lost when Adam sinned. God used men and women who mess up like we mess up.

God remains in control and our bad choices cannot and will not thwart his plan. If you are in Christ and have confessed the sin, then it’s over, done.

Move on.

In writing about Lucius Sulla, Augustine says,

“For that victory was not so conducive to his exaltation to power, as it was fatal to his ambition; for by it he became so insatiable in his desires, and was rendered so arrogant and reckless by prosperity, that he may be said rather to have inflicted a moral destruction on himself than corporal destruction on his enemies.”

I’m not a good enough student of history to cite the reasons for Augustine taking such a dim view of Sulla’s career.

The point of challenge for me is Augustine’s perspective that Sulla’s choices had as great an effect on himself as they did on those he mistreated. The point is that we should not only be concerned about the effect on society but should also be concerned about the souls of the ones who are making the decisions.

It is so easy to lose this perspective. I hear things about political leaders and I see decisions that are made and get frustrated and angry at the abuse of power and waste of resources. Yet I don’t stop long enough to be concerned about those who are perpetrating the abuse and waste.

The influential and powerful are no less loved by God than the poor and outcasts. God is concerned for their souls and I should share that concern. But often I get caught up in the rhetoric and lose sight of the fact that the influential and powerful imperil their own souls by their actions.

Perhaps I should spend as much time praying for those who are making choices with which I disagree as I do decrying the abuse.

The point is not to move toward inaction, but to move toward prayer before, during and after action.