The Best Times

In life there are things that happen that we are not fond of. I hated the first years of college, not having a single friend and the feeling of life being out of control. I was upset when my aunt was having difficulties getting pregnant, and when she did miscarrying. I hated it most of all when my best friend was going through some tuff times and there was nothing I could do but pray.

Many times I am asked how I can believe in a God that allows bad things to happen. Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? How can God, if He exists allow bad things to happen? While they seem to be great questions at first, they rely of God’s existence to define themselves.

Good and bad, why do we call them good and bad? Good relies on our perception of what is good. Likewise bad relies on the person’s definition of bad. If there is no God then who is the moral law giver? Moral law is the set of morals we live by, like do not kill, don’t steal, and the laws that govern our countries. If there is no God then who is the moral law giver, man? If the moral law giver is man, then how do we determine what is bad and what is good? Take a vote and see? If there is no moral law giver then there is no way of defining good and bad. To admit there is no God is to say there is no moral law giver, and therefore no good or bad.

At the heart of the question is the distaste for bad. No one smiles when they walk out from work and sees a flat tire. We don’t rejoice when the person behind us rear ends us at a red light. Then again is bad really that bad.

To that I turn to Malcolm Muggeridge; “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo…the result would not be to make delectable, but to make it too banal or trivial to be endurable. This of course is what the cross signifies, and it is the cross more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.”

Much like Malcolm, the times I really disliked at first really enhanced my life. The hardship my friend went through enhanced our friendship. Closeness between friends is established the strongest when the friends go through some rough times. Seeing my aunt go through those rough times when she and my uncle were trying so hard to have a kid, made me appreciate life more, and cherish the people around a lot more. The lonely times at the beginning of college made me appreciate not only friends, my parents and brothers, my family, but also God more. I may not enjoy the “bad” times when I am going through them, but these times enhance and make me enjoy life more.