Why do bad things happen?

 

Why do bad things happen? 

Throughout our mortal sojourn here on Earth we experience a plethora of experiences. Unfortunately a lot of those experiences aren't very positive in the sense that we go through hard times of sorrow, grief, sadness, depression, and many other negative experiences. Although these trials are not fun, or exactly what we want they are in fact inevitable. No one person can go through life without experiencing hard times, and some may ask "How could God let this happen to me?", or maybe "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" and these are very valid questions, and I for one have asked them before. Being on a mission seeing the highs and lows of peoples lives has got me pondering those questions more and more. I occasionally lay awake at night getting bombarded with answers, thoughts, scriptures, and ideas concerning these questions. For one let's consider the following example of our very own Savior, and redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

Jesus Christ's suffering.

I'm certain we are all familiar with the story found in the New Testament, about this really cool guy named Jesus Christ. He is a pretty important figure, even the most important person to ever live. If there had not been Jesus Christ "...Our spirits must have become like unto [Satan], and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works and darkness."(2 Nephi 9:9). That was a lot to take in but in essence without Jesus Christ we would be destined to be miserable for all eternity, and that's not what God wants. But taking that and introducing his experience on how he did all that for us, his suffering to allow us to live with our heavenly parents, and family again was more pain any living being could endure. 

Jesus Christ being the literal son of God pleaded with our father in heaven before he suffered for all mankind, asking if there was another way to save all of mankind so he didn't have to suffer the excruciating pain, but Jesus didn't back down he told God "...Nevertheless not my will be done but thine, be done."(Luke 22:42). Now trying to put myself in God's shoes in this situation, as his son Jesus Christ pleads with him to not have him go through this pain, I can only imagine how hard that would've been for God to have to deny his plea, and allow Him to suffer that. The agony He must have felt watching His son go through that. I can guarantee you that God feels the same way when he hears each one of us praying and asking to take away our pains, and trials. God doesn't enjoy watching us go through trials, at school, at work, at home, with friends, family, no matter the situation. But in these situations God doesn't remove these trials for the same reason he didn't lift Jesus’ suffering in Gethsemane, because it's necessary. 

Lehi's conundrum. 

The prophet Lehi teaches us in the second book of Nephi in the second chapter, and this is now one of my favorite verses, verse 25 says "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy"(Italics added) this is a fairly popular scripture and so I've heard it throughout my life, but I always skipped over it, until I decided to break it down. So the first line there "Adam fell…" obviously it is talking about when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit to experience mortal life. So "Adam and Eve partook of the fruit and fell, that men might be…" so in verse 23 of the same chapter "...they would have had no children…" and so if they had not fallen they would have had no children, meaning we wouldn't have been able to experience mortal life. We were teaching this guy the plan of salvation and we get to Adam and Eve, and he goes "If only I had a time machine, I would go to the garden and tell Eve "Don't eat the fruit, Don't eat the fruit!" so we could all be happy for our lives!" but there's just so much wrong with that situation, first off, they are immortal and they couldn't have children in the garden, so they would've been in the garden of Eden forever, and they would've partaken of the fruit eventually, God is smart like that, it was supposed to happen. And second let's just say you COULD stop them permanently from eating the fruit that would cause a grandfather paradox, but anyway! "And men are" or so men exist, or were created. "that they might have joy." 

So with our new found expanded interpretation the scripture now says. "Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, and fell, so that men could exist; and men exist that they might have joy." Now this is where the conundrum comes in. Going back to our question, "How could God let this awful thing happen to me/them?" Well, what did we just find out? So that we could have Joy. That may raise another question though "Why would suffering make me happy?" well don't worry I’ve got answers.

Guinea Pigs? No. 

During my mission me and my companion were at the store(on a Preparation day of course) shopping for groceries. My companion brings to my attention that he needs to use the little boys room, now he didn't say it like that but I find that statement humorous. I comply and we make our way over there, and he goes in and I wait outside, as you do, and this nice old lady walks over, pulls her mask down and says "Jesus loves you!" and so at this point I'm thinking heck yeah, this is awesome we're about to have an awesome conversation about God's love for his children, so I repeat the same thing "Jesus loves you too!" but here's the kicker, she then says "But we can't be God's, there's only one God, and God created us for his own pleasure, not ours!" and proceeds to just walk off into the bathroom. First off, did you really take time out from you needing to use the restroom to tell me that?

My point for telling you that story  is that I don't know how some people accept this honestly sad concept of existence that we were created because God is some all powerful toddler smashing his little creations together because he thinks it's funny. My good friend from my mission told me this story about when he was little he used to run little people figures over with toy trains so that's what I'm just kinda picturing in my mind like no. What we need to understand is that we aren't these Guinea Pigs God created for the purpose of being stress tested for fun. Like "Let's have Guinea pig number 3,293,742 be hit by a car today, watch, this will be funny!" God loves us all infinitely, perfectly, and knows us all by name. We were all created in his own image, and with our own divine potential. 

One other thing is God didn’t just create us into existence then  “Alright y’all I’m going to send you to earth and you better be happy.” and then forgets about us, He is with us every step of our life He rejoices when we rejoice, He’s sad when we’re sad. Because He is our Loving heavenly father He wants us to be happy, and it makes Him happy when we’re happy. But again I can guarantee that He is happy because we exist but our original purpose wasn’t for Him, but for us. Much like new parents considering having a child, it grows their family, makes them happy, and gives another soul the opportunity to experience life, and be happy.

God is always by our side.

Like I have mentioned before, God is always with us through our trials and tribulations, and helps us as much as we can. Going back to Luke 22 talking about the savior's suffering, in verse 43 it says that an angel appeared unto Jesus, and strengthened him. Unfortunately we don’t have physical angels coming down and strengthening us through our trials all the time, but we have Jesus, and God by our side at all times. An Elder I know shared an experience of his first few days in the mission field, and it goes as follows “I had just arrived in the field, I was so excited to see where I was going to be assigned. The first day was rough though, we had training forever, we had to run back and forth endlessly to other apartments to accommodate for bedding issues, and it was tiring and stressful. The end of the day I had just felt homesick, and alone. I called my family that night, and I just couldn’t help but to cry because I missed home. I soon hung up with my family, and said a prayer. After I concluded my prayer I sat up from my bed, and saw a sign on the wall of this apartment, it read “Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest - Joshua 1:9” and I instantly felt comforted as if I had just received a warm hug from a loving parent. And just had the words, don’t worry, I am with thee.” From this very inspiring yet simple story I know that God is with you and me whithersoever we go.

The apostle Paul, once said to the Romans, and it is recorded in Romans 8:38, 39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The amount of commas in these scriptures just shows how serious it is. This scripture brings me great comfort, and another great teaching comes from the prophet Nephi in 1 Nephi 3:7 “For I know the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.” From this verse we learn that God never gives anything to anybody that they couldn’t handle, because if you replace the word commandment with trial it becomes more clear: “For I know the Lord giveth no trial unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.”(italics, and trial added) now we see that He doesn’t give us trials without providing a way for us to triumph over our hardships. Not only that we can know that through the atonement that Jesus Christ knows everything we’re going through, and heavenly father and Christ are by our side every step of the way, so we can feel joy through our trials knowing those facts.

Opposition in ALL things.

Going back to 2 Nephi 2 Lehi teaches us “For there must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things…” opposition is very important here. If you remember from a few pages ago I raised the question "Why would suffering make me happy?" Well those are opposites right? So just in case you don’t catch my drift, there must needs be sorrow to be joy. Make sense? No? Let me ask you another question, How do we know that the color blue exists? Well if everything is blue then nothing is blue, right? Because of the vast spectrum of contrasting colors labeling our perceivable universe in which we live we can tell that red isn’t blue, yellow isn’t blue, but that blue is blue. So without any other color we would not be able to identify blue.

Comparing that to happiness and misery, we cannot recognise true joy without knowing true misery. Why do you think it is that Adam and Eve didn’t know what goodness, or happiness was? Because they didn’t know what sin, or misery was. That is why they had to “fall”, now that is why we must experience trials. I imagine we cannot be Gods in the celestial kingdom if we do not know true joy, because in the celestial kingdom is where true, and perfect joy reside. Joseph Smith was the Prophet to open this last and final dispensation. Through the power of God he translated the Book of Mormon, received prophetic revelations to rediscover some lost content in the Bible, published what is now called the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Along with the four books known as scripture he also restored Christ's new testament church, known as, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As stated in the 135th section of the Doctrine & Covenants it states that "Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." Just based on this statement alone Joseph Smith is a very important guy, and since he was chose, and instructed by God to restore His sons new testament church one would think God would keep him completely safe, and away from harm. Well unfortunately speaking that was not the case. In the many years it took to translate the Book of Mormon, and restore the church to its fulness, Joseph Smith has had family members die, including his own children, abused, harassed, unjustly imprisoned, threatening on his life, and his friends lives and eventually murdered. One experience that stands out to me is found on The Teachings of the Presidents of Joseph Smith Chapter 19: Stand Fast Through the Storms of Life, and it reads "On the night of March 24, 1832, Joseph Smith had stayed up late caring for his 11-month-old son, Joseph, who was sick with the measles. The Smith family was then living in the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio. The Prophet had finally gone to sleep on a trundle bed when a mob of a dozen or more men who had been drinking whiskey broke into the home. The Prophet later described the events of that terrible night:

“The mob burst open the door and surrounded the bed in an instant, and … the first I knew I was going out of the door in the hands of an infuriated mob. I made a desperate struggle, as I was forced out, to extricate myself, but only cleared one leg, with which I made a pass at one man, and he fell on the door steps. I was immediately overpowered again; and they swore … they would kill me if I did not be still, which quieted me. …

“They then seized me by the throat and held on till I lost my breath. After I came to, as they passed along with me, about thirty rods from the house, I saw Elder Rigdon stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged him by his heels. I supposed he was dead. I began to plead with them, saying, ‘You will have mercy and spare my life, I hope.’ To which they replied, ‘… Call on yer God for help, we’ll show ye no mercy.’”

After some discussion, the mob “concluded not to kill me,” the Prophet related, “but to beat and scratch me well, tear off my shirt and drawers, and leave me naked. … They ran back and fetched the bucket of tar, when one exclaimed, with an oath, ‘Let us tar up his mouth;’ and they tried to force the tar-paddle into my mouth; I twisted my head around, so that they could not; and they cried out, ‘… Hold up yer head and let us giv ye some tar.’ They then tried to force a vial into my mouth, and broke it in my teeth. All my clothes were torn off me except my shirt collar; and one man fell on me and scratched my body with his nails like a mad cat. …

“They then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again; I pulled the tar away from my lips, so that I could breathe more freely, and after a while I began to recover, and raised myself up, whereupon I saw two lights. I made my way towards one of them, and found it was Father Johnson’s. When I came to the door … the tar made me look as if I were covered with blood, and when my wife saw me she thought I was all crushed to pieces, and fainted. …"

What a horrible experience President Smith had to go through, and he was God's chosen prophet to start the final dispensation. Now did that mean God didn't love him? Absolutely not, President Smith taught in that same Chapter when talking to the twelve apostles: "You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and (said he) God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." President Smith just lays it out flat there for us, that if we can't rely on God through our tough times then we aren't fit to live with Him. If we don't trust Him why would we want to live with Him? 

Spiritual green thumb

Another important reason for hard time is often for, one person or the others, growth. Growth often times comes in the form of trials, and hardships. Areas outside of our comfort zone, we can't grow in our own bubble of comfort because we can't experience anything new, or uncomfortable. Being a child of God gives us divine heirship to be gods, just like our father. And being a god means knowing perfect love, happiness, power, bodies, and spirits. None of which we are capable of fully grasping in this lifetime, but we can get dang sure close. Close enough even that we can inherit this status of god and goddess. Which is way outside of our comfort zone, as humans we are used to this imperfect tabernacle we call our bodies, and our imperfect attitudes, and actions, and that has to change in the next life.

If you are limiting yourself to only playing with a barrel of monkeys, how are you supposed to know that there are so many more things to play with to satisfy your boredom unless you try new things. And to reiterate, as god's we have an infinite access to any of the "toys" in existence, even that we will have to get used to but we have the rest of our existence to perfect it. Getting outside of our comfort zones can be difficult and scary at times, but again it's necessary, and sometimes it's not even to just help us. On the occasion we will receive trials that someone else has also experienced, death in the family, substance abuse, harassment of a sort, or maybe even just hard times with schooling. Sometimes WE are the out that we talked about earlier for other people, as we go through trials God is preparing a way for someone else to get through a hard time through us. Altogether we must trust in the Lord our God in all our trials, I once shared a message with an awesome family from Mosiah 24:

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. 

And so in this experience Amulon, one of the wicked King Noah's priests had captured Alma and his people and told them they would kill them if they prayed, so they prayed in their hearts and that was God's reply. We must have faith that God will help us through our trials, just as Alma and his people did, it's the only way. Because the other way is to succumb to what Satan wants to happen, and that's not a pretty picture. 

Satan's re-plan

As we might be familiar with, Satan had a plan in the premortal existence to take away all of our agency, and have us all worship him for all eternity. Now as we have discussed, if we have no agency we cannot be happy, no misery, no happiness, but it's that agency that Satan doesn't like. In 2 Timothy 3:12 it states that: "Yea, and all they that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Bad things happen to all sorts of people, because others use their own God given Agency to harm others. Now in cases like President Smith's he got severe persecution mainly from others agency, and I do believe that God kept him from death because his purpose hadn't been fulfilled yet, but he was not protected from persecution. Unfortunately Satan is smart, Satan doesn't like that we have agency, but chooses to use others agency to try to make our own agency work against us. Going back to what Timothy says, and that is that the saints who live righteous lives will be persecuted, well from what I have seen questions like "Why has God let this happen to me/them?" is exactly what Satan wants. 

After Satan was sent away from God's presence he devised a new plan, and his plan is like I've mentioned before, to use Gods greatest gift to us, and pin it against us. Satan wants us to use our agency to believe that God is sending bad things our way, that God hates us, that God curses us. Because Satan doesn't want us to have all of God's blessings. Like I've mentioned before, God knew that we would be tried and that is why in the words of President Smith in that same Chapter: “The power of the Gospel will enable us to stand and bear with patience the great affliction that is falling upon us on all sides. … The harder the persecution the greater the gifts of God upon his church(us). Yea, all things shall work together for good to them who are willing to lay down their lives for Christ’s sake.”

“My only hope and confidence is in that God who gave me being, in whom there is all power, who now is present before me, and my heart is naked before his eyes continually. He is my comforter, and he forsaketh me not.”

“I know in whom I trust; I stand upon the rock; the floods cannot, no, they shall not, overthrow me.”

President Joseph Smith states there that the greater the afflictions the greater the gifts from God. As well as that the power of this Gospel gives us that endurance through trials. Plus how could we know good and bad, if every time something bad is about to happen God just goes "Nope." He would be taking away our agency that He gave us. That is not God's plan. 

Why do bad things happen? 

Brothers and Sisters throwing all of what has been said today in a blender, and pouring whatever comes out into this last section. We know God's plan for us, we know that God is our loving Heavenly father, and that he has a plan for us, he has prepared a way for us to get over any trial. God knows each one of us individually and we all have our own divine potential, Jesus Christ has felt everything you go through, and He knows how to help you. God has created us to be happy, and going through trials is a big part of that. Satan doesn't want us to be happy and he wants us to use our agency to curse God because then we can't gain Exaltation. 

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13 it states "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." with all this knowledge in mind, sorrow not Brothers and Sisters, for because of this knowledge we can have hope that this life, and these hardships will be an infinitesimally incomparable space of time, although that it in fact makes the most impact on our infinite, and eternal existence. James 1: 

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

As Alma says to his son Helaman, and I'm paraphrasing here, Do not be slothful because it seems easier to choose to hate God, the path with God is always easier. God has provided a way for us to be happy, and if we might look we may live.(Alma 37:46) Do not err, this is the way, Jesus Christ us the way. 

It is my solemn testimony that God loves each one of us, and wants what's best for us, God provides a way for us to overcome all our trials, and he doesn't let anything happen to us save He provide a way for us to accomplish that thing which He hath commanded us to do. Everything God has given us is for our benefit, families, wards, stakes, ecclesiastical leaders, this Church, the Prophets of new and old, His only begotten son, and His Atonement, and His very own infinite love for you, and me. Brothers and Sisters, it's all true, God is the only way to perfect happiness. 

• Elder Edson