The Chess Players: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Well, in the Garden of Eden, God designed humanity to operate within a certain divine framework. When the enemy came to deceive mankind, our earthly progenitors chose to play his game of four dimensional chess.

Imagine painting a masterpiece that decides rip itself from the canvas and open a donut shop. Regardless of its desires, it is defying its very nature. The masterpiece drops and splashes on the ground--a puddle of paint mixing into an ugly brown. Thus was our race, so utterly naive to the reality of that which we were never meant to be: apart from our Father. The abstract force serving as the void between us and God is known as "sin" or "missing the mark." The Bible routinely describes a key parallel to this broken order with the haunting reality of death.

The Biblical soul is the unity of flesh and spirit--body and breath. One of the many consequences of humanity's choice to sin is the fact that the body degrades; this is a testament to the theobiological need to depend on the Father. So if sin is such a terrible curse that it would render us perishable, then why wouldn't God just spare us the pain and start over? What painter would try and scoop up the goop that was his rebellious masterpiece when he could simply start over? The answer is found in 1 John where we are given the definition of our Creator: love.

This is how people like Job were able to trust in God despite their suffering. If God is love itself then there must be something else at play. Perhaps the key to understanding as far as we can regarding the titular question is found in the application of our Creator in the context of the fall of our race.

In the Garden of Eden, God presented Adam and Eve with a choice. Though this choice is often described as some kind of cruel test, given the gift of Biblical context, it seems more likely to be a display of impossibly forbearing trust.

I know you're going to disobey me, He perhaps thought. But because I love you, I will not deny you the ability to choose for yourself whether you will remain in Me or deny the very fabric of your existence.

This was not simply some test from on high. Instead it was a personal, relational affirmation of His unconditional love via giving their choice value in the first place. In order to honor his earthly children, He allows the consequences of sin to play out--the devil's game must reveal itself to be rigged. Ellen White discusses this very idea in the beginning of Patriarchs and Prophets.

However, like in Retzsch's "The Chess Players", the king has one more move! You see, "even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son." (Ephesians 1:4-6)

"The Chess Players" by Moritz Retzsch

The Lord weeps with you when you mourn and hears your cry when you suffer injustice. We are a part of much bigger conflict then even the entirety of our individual lifespans. It doesn't make the pain go away, but this is why "in this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good." (Ecclesiastes 8:14b) This is why bad things happen to good people.

So as hard as it sounds, we must trust in our Creator--in our God who is love! No matter how cliche it may be, there is no greater hope than what Jesus did for us on the cross, granting us access back into the arms of our Father. We can be His people now, and at the end of all this, "God himself will be with [His people]. 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.” (Revelation 21:3b-4)

May God's will be done :)