When Bad Things Happen

My friend Dale Short recently had an article published in which he described the paradigm shift he experienced by reading Harold Kushner’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  Kushner offers a healthy examination of the questions so many of us face when life does not go the way we would like it to.

 

Three things that we traditionally hold as true, we have never been able to reconcile: God is all powerful, God is good, Evil is real. Most Christians cannot let go any one of these concepts, despite the dissonance.  I tried to address this in my blog post, “Hope in the Midst of Tragedy” where I relied heavily upon Viktor Frankl's words in Man's Search for Meaning.

Kushner takes a helpful and honest look at this dilemma in his book which has been a classic since it was first published in 1981. It is certainly important that we take an open and honest look at the questions life sometimes hurls at us.  The tired old answers such as, “This was God’s will,” or “We can’t understand it now but it must be for the best,” or “God must have needed your loved one in Heaven,” simply do not help the one who is suffering the grief of a lost loved one, or trying to carry on when tragedy strikes.  Sometimes platitudes work more for the one trying to offer something to say, when in truth, silence and simple presence may be more supportive that words.

It has been years since I read Krushner’s book. Thanks to Dale Short, it has been brought back to mind. When Bad Things Happen to Good People is a wonderful resource for anyone going through hardship. Many have called it a life changing book. I am glad to be reminded today of Rabbi Kushner’s wisdom. 

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