I’ve been attending a seminar at my church lately, The Foundations Of Spiritual Companionship. It’s to help pastoral care providers offer more compassionate care, especially when visiting the ill. We were asked to think about our theology of suffering, and to reflect on the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Kushner.
As I think more on this issue, I realize I have not adequately explained what I mean by bad things happening randomly. I am referring to what I see in nature. Lightning does not choose the tree it strikes. Tornadoes do not choose where to set down. Hurricanes do not choose where they will touch land. Forest fires do not choose what they will burn. There is no place in the word where one sort of natural disaster or another will not occur at some point. God does not will these natural events, nor choose the victims. In the same way, I do not think God chooses who will get cancer, or who will be in a plane crash. Rabbi Kushner say that when disaster strikes, we should not ask, why did this happen to me, but, now that his had happened to me, what am I going to do about it?I think this is a healthy approach.
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