One of the all time tough questions.....

First, let me say that I do not know the answer to this question. I have some thoughts on it, but it would be arrogant of me to say that I knew the answer, but here's the question....

Why do bad things happen to good people?

As many of you know,Tornadoes ripped through Tennessee last week and did a lot of damage in Murfreesboro. After the storm passed, I heard a lot folks say things like...

"Praise God! Our house wasn't damaged, God took care of us!"

God should definitely be praised. I'm not criticizing that at all, but, too often, do we use events as a barometer of our relationship with God?

One of the ministers that I had heard a lot about recently was a man named Joel Osteen. One evening, I was flipping through the channels and one of his services was being broadcast, so I stopped to listen. One of the first things that I heard him say was "God wants you to be rich". I changed the channel right after that statement.

I feel that one of the most dangerous ideas in Christianity today is what I've heard referred to as the "Health and Wealth Gospel". That if you have a good relationship with God, that your life will be smooth sailing. Is that true?

One of the scriptures that comes to my mind when I think about this topic, is the story where Jesus healed the man that was blind since birth.

John 9

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.


Jesus' disciples had the idea that the man's blindness had to be the result of sin. This 'bad' thing in his life had to be the result of a sin by someone. But Jesus set them straight, the man was blind for a reason, but it wasn't because of any bad thing that he or his parents did.

There are many stories in the Bible where 'bad' things happen to 'good' people, consider the stories of Job and Joseph. In my opinion, God allows us to suffer the consequences of our own sin, their is no doubt about that. But using other events in life as a barometer of your relationship with God, is a dangerous place to go.

William Wallace and CEO compensation....

This morning, there was a story on the news about growing anger with CEO's who make a lot of money. This afternoon, I watched Braveheart....the story of the freedom of Scotland from British tyranny.

In my warped mind it all came together in a weird way into this blog post...

During the Presidential election this year, I heard a lot of my liberal leaning friends (yes, I still consider them friends) disgusted at the huge sums of money that executives make compared to the average worker. This morning, on CBS News Sunday Morning, they did an entire segment on the growing tension between the ultra wealthy and the middle or lower class folks, such as myself.

I believe that Sunday Morning is usually pretty good about presenting both sides of an argument, and I felt like they did in this segment as well. One gentlemen, spoke about how 'wrong' it was for millions of folks to be living below the poverty line, while the top 1% of wage earners were making more than ever. The answer....of course...is increase taxes on the top 1% to help those that make less.

Another gentlemen, spoke of how a total of 35% of government revenue is already derived from this top 1%. And that it would be hard to argue that they weren't 'doing their fair share'.

So, how does this tie in with William (Braveheart) Wallace? When the British finally caught William Wallace and were about to execute him, the man in charge told him that they would make his execute quick and painless if he would simply pledge his allegiance to the British crown. He had already been tortured, and the last thing he said was......FREEDOM!

Here's my point, there are some who obtain their wealth illegally, or by exploiting the system. Be sure, that any executive that is caught in some sort of illegality is going to appear night after night on your evening news. But, please, do not cast all members of the top 1% into this group. There are many very hard working honest people who make more money in a year than I'll ever see in a lifetime.

The question here, is Freedom....are those that studied hard in school, or worked hard to build a business or simply got lucky automatically bad people because they are compensated well? Is our concept of freedom such that the right to freedom is taken away if you make more money than the average bear?

Freedom is freedom....freedom is the ability to reap the rewards or consequences of our own actions and choices. Freedom is the ability to what you want regardless of how other people feel about it.

Freedom was important enough to William Wallace to die for....Freedom is important....I fear it is at risk in our country.