Why I Think Bad Things Happen to Good People*

So I didn't get the job. Kinda sucks, I know, but I wasn't very well qualified anyway. I mean I aced the class, but I've never tutored before, and I probably wouldn't be a very good one. Oh well, anyway, what I really wanted to post was the paper I wrote for my Doctrine and Covenants class, so here it is:

Why do bad things happen to good people? More importantly, why does God let bad things happen to good people? Why does God let bad things happen at all? Those seem to be some of the most important questions to us as human beings, besides, “Why are we here?” Throughout my life I’ve learned of many reasons that bad things happen to good people, and this past lesson taught me another one. I think the most important reason I’ve learned in my life is because we are all subjected to trials. We are all put through the refiner’s fire, so that we may be perfected in Christ. Some of the trials God puts us through are worse than other people’s trials, but they are all intended for the same purpose, and that is to bring us home to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Another reason we suffer is because of our own poor choices. If we sin, we have to endure the consequences, and sometimes those consequences require bad things to happen to us. Those aren’t the only two reasons though: God never interferes with our agency, and so sometimes He has to leave us to our own devices, and many people’s devices aren’t good ones. Take slavery for example. I highly doubt God wanted us to subject our fellow brethren to such cruelty, but because He can never interfere with our agency, He had to let it happen. And also because He can never interfere with our agency, He couldn’t do anything to stop it Himself. In my New Testament class last winter semester, our professor gave us some reasons for the basis on which God places us where we’re at in this life, and I think these also explain why bad things happen to us sometimes: 1: we’re all in the place where we need to be; God puts us where we have the best chance to succeed, the place where we can realize our potential; 2: God has to balance out the needs of other people as well; He puts us where we can help others realize their potential; and 3: He puts us where our rough corners can be knocked off, and sometimes it hurts, but He knows what He’s doing (this goes back to the refiner’s fire). Sometimes the place where He puts us requires us to suffer quite a bit, and sometimes it requires us to suffer very little, but because He’s God, He certainly knows what He’s doing, and there is a purpose. The last reason I’ve learned is the one I learned in class last time: bad things will happen to the Saints “by reason of the weakness of the flesh,” according to Joseph Smith. We are mortal, and the flesh is weak, as we read so many times in the scriptures. The earth is subject to Satan’s rule, and he takes advantage of this weakness as much as he possibly can. There are quite a few reasons for our suffering, but the most important lesson we should take from this is that Heavenly Father and especially Jesus Christ are there for us. Who knows more about suffering than Jesus Christ? Who knows better how to succor His people than the one who suffered everything for them? In our trials, we simply have to humble ourselves and look to Him, and we will come out of this life as conquerors over the flesh, over sin, and over Satan, and we will be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.