God Is Good Even When…

By Soo Ji Alvarez

The Bible teaches us that God is good, but how can a good God allow bad things to happen?

When we allow our circumstances to shape who God is, we fail to see that Jesus truly is our Good Shepherd. But when we begin to allow the truth of God’s Word to shape our perspective, we begin to see that God’s greatest plans always involve sacrifice.

We have to go to God’s Word to hear His voice and understand the truth of who God is. He is a Good Father and a Good Shepherd, and His plan is better than our plan for our lives.

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep (John 10:1–16)

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 

Who is God in this story?

God is the Good Shepherd who calls His own sheep by name. He knows your name whether it’s Soo Ji, Matthew, David or Elizabeth.

The Good Shepherd goes ahead of His sheep, and they follow Him. He shows them the right and safe way to go to the pasture to eat and to get back home. The Good Shepherd comes to give life and life to the full.

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“The Good Shepherd stays to protect and save the sheep.”

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The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd stays to protect and save the sheep. The Good Shepherd willingly lays down His life for His sheep; no one forces Him to do it.

Who are we in this story?

We are the sheep, and we need a Good Shepherd.

Some of us really need help because we keep getting lost or caught in the same fence over and over again.

Some of us listen to His voice, know His voice and follow Him. Sheep are trained to know the voice of their shepherd. They will not follow the voice of a stranger. When they follow the shepherd, they find pasture, which nourishes them and gives them life to the fullest.

Who is the bad guy in the story?

The hired hand abandons the sheep when there is danger.

The thief/robber/wolf attacks and scatters the sheep.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

A Father’s Desperate Search

I absolutely love that the Good Shepherd calls His sheep by name. God, our good heavenly Father, knows us by name. He calls out to us when we are lost or in danger or trapped in that thing that keeps tripping us up. I was reminded of a time when my son Juaquin was only about a year and a half old. He was walking by then, and my husband, Joe, and I were at the mall with him. I was pregnant with our daughter, and I was shopping for some clothes that would fit my big belly. Joe’s job was to watch the boy.

I was happily looking through the rack of clothes, and all of a sudden I hear Joe shouting, “Juaquin, Juaquin!” I look up and see Joe running up and down the aisles shouting “Juaquin, Juaquin!” I’d never heard him shout that loud before in my life, even when he’s preaching a really good sermon. He was shouting so loudly that he was making other customers nervous. (I could hear them whispering, “What’s a juaquin?” “Don’t know, bruh, but he must really wanna buy one.”)

I ran over to Joe who told me that he lost our son. He turned his back for one second, and Juaquin just disappeared. Joe was in panic mode. He was looking under the racks of clothes, and he looked like a crazy person. He was convinced that someone had kidnapped our son, and that we were going to have to call the police. Fortunately, I found Juaquin in the toy section of the store. He was happily playing with some toys. But I want you to remember this picture of this crazy man desperately shouting out the name of his son.

God is a good Father, and He is shouting some of your names like a crazy person because He loves you so much. Some of you are lost, you have strayed away, and He is pursuing you and looking for you.

The Good Shepherd is calling you by name.

The Good Shepherd goes ahead of you because He wants you to follow Him.

The Good Shepherd will show you the safe way to go to the pasture and the right way to get back home.

The Good Shepherd comes to give you life and life to the full.

The Good Shepherd lays down His life for you.

The Good Shepherd stays to protect and save you.

What can we learn from John 10? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are His sheep. When bad things happen, they come from the thief/robber/enemy of your soul. God is good, but why does God allow bad things to happen to us and in the world when He is good?

I’ve had a lot of pain and loss in my life. When I was pregnant with our third child, I had a traumatic miscarriage and lost that baby. I lost my dad to cancer five years ago. I know that some of you have suffered much worse pain and trauma than I have.

Some of you have lived pretty good lives and don’t know what it’s like to really understand the pain and evil in our world. There is so much pain, brokenness and evil in our world due to sin and the egregious actions of others. How many more violent acts of racism or mass shootings need to happen in order for the church to wake up?

All of a sudden something bad happens, and we ask, “Why do bad things happen when God is good?” We begin to doubt God and to believe that God is not good and does not care. We begin to believe God does not love us or protect us like a Good Shepherd. We want to write our own stories and be in control of our lives in order to feel safe and happy.

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“We say we trust God, but behind the scenes, when the slightest thing goes wrong, our trust in God is shaken.”

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I would love to write the story of my life. But when it comes to our real lives, we are not in control. We don’t get to pick and choose our favorite ending. Sometimes something terrible happens, and we get blindsided and can’t believe that a good God would allow such bad things to happen to His children.

Humans are very attached to outcomes. We say we trust God, but behind the scenes, when the slightest thing goes wrong, our trust in God is shaken. We praise God when our lives look like what we thought it should look like.

Just as easily, we curse the day we were born when things don’t turn out the way we think they should. We start to question God and begin to suspect that God was the one who started all this mess. We think He doesn’t care. We must understand that we cannot control our outcomes. We cannot formulate how the promises of God will actually take shape and come to be in our lives.

We want the promises and healing, but we can’t demand that God do it faster and heal us instantly. God is too smart and all-knowing to answer our prayers at any time other than the right time. God is trying to teach us how to trust Him as the Good Shepherd. He is using your painful situation to try and get your attention. He is using your painful situation to speak to you and to teach you something in your pain and in your healing before you get to His promises.

If we want His promises, we have to trust His process.

Our problem is that we think the victory only comes at the end of the story when good defeats evil, and you get to ride off into the sunset. No, the real victory is not just in the ending. It’s in how we deal with our pain, our struggles and the outcomes that we didn’t want or expect. That is how you learn to live victoriously.

The real victory is in how you deal with pain and disappointment during the story today. This is how you learn to trust in God as our Good Shepherd. The bigger part of the victory is not just in the end of the story, but in how well you live your story today.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

God reminds us that we have the victory in every situation and in every outcome. In what ways are you attached more to the outcomes than to trusting in God?

Sometimes to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like. We have got to learn to stop letting our disappointments get the better of us. People, finances, relationships and circumstances often should be better than they are. Disappointment is not proof that God is withholding good from us. Sometimes it’s His way of leading us home and back to Him. There is a great inner work that God is doing in us if we start to believe that He works through pain.

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“Bad things happen to good people because sometimes they are the only things that make us turn back to God.”

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In my favorite story, there is no pain. But in God’s story, there is pain. The pain is in the place where God can do His greatest miracles because it is sometimes the only place where we begin to turn to God, cry out and run to Him. Bad things happen to good people because sometimes they are the only things that make us turn back to God and turn away from writing stories that will end in our own destruction.

Patience in Suffering

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door” (James 5:7–9).

James talks about how we will reap a harvest that only grows during suffering. At the end of the story if we persevere through our pain and suffering, very truly I tell you that we will indeed reap a harvest. So why do bad things happen to good people? Because God desires for you to reap a spiritual harvest that is more important than being safe and happy. Because God desires for us to come out of the other side of the crisis with a stronger faith, a deeper belief in God and a greater understanding of His nature. We can understand that God is good even when things are bad and that He uses even pain and suffering to fulfill His purposes. He knows what He is doing, and He cares deeply about what we need.

Could it be that God knows that only in crisis we will cling to Him? Could it be that if we lived in the perfect story that we would write for ourselves, in a perfect world with perfect lives, we wouldn’t need God and instead would rely on ourselves? Could it be that God is saving us from ourselves and from us writing the “perfect story” that leads to our own destruction and death? If we lived in a world without pain and suffering, would we ever turn to God for help, hope and healing? We can’t control our outcomes, others or God, but we can trust God because He is the Good Shepherd.

James later writes, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (5:13–16).

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“Let’s admit that we need help. We need God.”

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Today let’s not play church and act like we have everything figured out. Let’s not just sit and smile and try to write our own stories. Let’s admit that we need help. We need God.

If you have allowed sin to rule your heart, mind or life, confess your sin to God and know that He is faithful to forgive you today. But we must confess our sin to each other and pray for each other. We need each other in order to go deeper with God.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Some of you struggle with that very question and are even tempted to think that you are not a good person. God is the one who created you, and He made you good. He loves you. He is fond of you, and you are sons and daughters of the Most High King. God created mankind, both male and female, in His image. He saw all He created, and He said it was good.

You are created in His image, and you are good. Yes, we sometimes do bad things, and, yes, sometimes bad things happen to us that we didn’t deserve. Just when the enemy has you believing that God has abandoned you and that maybe you are not good, God comes to the rescue and delivers on His promises. If we want His promises, we have to trust His process.

“Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3).+