Tough Questions: What Do I Do When Bad Things Happen?

Maybe it was the day you spilled your Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato with almond milk and an extra shot of espresso all over your new crewneck. Or perhaps it was the day you heard someone spread rumors about you that weren’t true. Or, quite possibly, it was the day you found out your parents were getting a divorce.

SIXTH GRADE FIELD DAY

It was my last Field Day ever and the worst day EVER.

It was the end of Sixth Grade at WA Wright Elementary in Mt. Juliet, TN.

Everyone was excited because school was almost out which meant summer and NO MORE CLASSES, TESTS, or HOMEWORK.

‌Everything started off fine that day. We had some breakfast, played a few games and then went over to the sidewalk for a sack lunch: a sandwich, chips, drink and an apple.

‌But just like Adam and Eve, that apple was going to be my downfall...

*Fill in story*

I don’t remember if someone challenged me or if I came up with the bright idea myself, but I decided to try and throw my apple from this sidewalk up on the hill to the woods at the bottom of the hill.

The problem is there was a small black car in the way...

So I reached back and threw the apple as far as my 12 year old arm could chuck it...

And the apple hit the middle of the back door of that stupid car.

I immediately freaked out, ran and sat down on the sidewalk like nothing happened, but Mrs. Reece, the meanest teacher in Middle TN caught me red-handed.

She made me go and clean the fresh applesauce off the car, which wasn’t a big deal.

But then she said the worst words a 6th grader could hear: “NO MORE FIELD DAY FOR YOU!”

I still haven’t forgiven that lady for ruining 6th grade for me.

(JK I did forgive her bc Jesus commanded me to)

I don’t know if you’ve ever had moments like that, moments where you wished you could change everything around you just enough that it wouldn’t feel so miserable. You might have wished your parents had stayed together... Or that your friends had been kinder to you... Or that you had kept a better grip on your surprisingly complicated Starbucks order.

And if you’ve never experienced that kind of moment, you know you don’t have to look too far on the news or in your friend group to find things that just feel like they shouldn’t be happening: Someone’s house burns down on Christmas. Your friend’s mom gets diagnosed with cancer. A drunk driver injures or kills a family member. Sometimes, things can be so bad that we ask, “God, what am I supposed to do?” If you’ve ever wrestled with that question, I want you to know you are in good company. And if you haven’t yet, I’m sorry to say that you will. I want you to know that God can handle our questions and frustrations. It’s normal to think you shouldn’t ask God questions like these, because, if you do, it might mean that you don’t have enough faith. Tonight we give ourselves (and each other) permission to ask some tough questions.

But here’s the deal I want to make with you: Instead of just asking the questions and assuming there isn’t a good answer, we will see if there are answers in God’s love letter to us—the Bible.

Deal?

[Leader note: Give students a moment to agree (or at least nod).]

Great! Then, let’s start with the question we’ve already been talking about:

SCRIPTURE ▶ What does God’s Word say?

There’s no better place to seek an answer to this tough question than in the Old Testament Book of Job. I know some of you may already be familiar with Job’s story, but I also know some of you will be hearing it for the first time. No matter which group you’re in (or if you’re somewhere in between), there are a few details that will be helpful for all of us to know:

First, we have no idea when this story was written or when it takes place. Honestly, it’s a mystery.

Second, the book includes conversations that took place between God and Satan. Be- cause of this, some biblical scholars would say that the story we read in the Book of Job didn’t actually happen and that it’s more of an allegory. But other scholars would say that it’s a true story that happened just like it’s described.

Third, there’s a point in the story where 7,000 sheep get set on fire. There’s not a whole lot of disagreement on this one. It’s just kind of disturbing, so I wanted to prepare those of you who love animals ahead of time so that doesn’t catch you off guard, causing your mind to wander to poor Fluffy.

(Show pic of dead sheep)

Ok, let’s look at God’s Word.

[show slide]

Job 1:1–3 (NLT)

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

[show slide]

All you need to know from this beginning part of Job was that he was a good person who was incredibly wealthy. It doesn’t tell us how much money he had, but having all those sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys, children, and servants reveals his wealth. Now, if it sounds like things are going well for Job, that’s because they are. Things just seem to go his way.

Well… that is until Satan gets involved:

[show slide]

Job 1:6–8 (NLT)

6 One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.

Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”

8 Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

Now, as I said earlier, we don’t know a lot about the context of this conversation or what led God to start bragging about Job, but as we’re going to find out, all it did was put a giant target on Job’s back:

[show slide]

Job 1:9–12 (NLT)

9 Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

12 “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

Woah. Okay, so it’s obvious that bad things are in Job’s future. He’s about to go from top of the world to absolute misery within minutes… and again, I don’t mean to spoil the story, but consider this your trigger warning if you have an problem with sheep being set on fire… I’m just going to paraphrase this next part, but all within a few minutes, four different messengers arrived at Job’s house with these messages:

Messenger 1:

All of your oxen and your donkeys were stolen… Yes, all of them.

Messenger 2:

A massive fire fell from the sky, and all of your sheep and all of your shepherds were completely burned by the fire… Yes, all of them.

Messenger 3:

Raiders killed all of your servants and stole all of your camels… Yes, all of them. Now, the first three were bad enough. But this next one is really going to hurt.

Now, the first three were bad enough. But this next one is really going to hurt:

Messenger 4:

All of your sons and daughters were having a feast at your oldest son’s house when a powerful wind hit the house from all four sides. The walls all collapsed inward, and all of your children were killed… Yes, all of them.

So, at this point, if I were Job, I would be in complete and total shock. I’d be devastated and furious that God allowed this to happen. I think it’s natural for people to blame someone/something when bad things happen, and I can totally see how someone would direct that blame toward God. But despite the devastation Job had just experienced, he seemed to understand things on a deeper level than I would have been able to in the same situation. Check out how he reacted:

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Job 1:20–22 (NLT)

Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” 22 In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

Essentially, Job was saying, “Everything good I’ve ever had, I received from God. So, if He wants to take it away, that’s His call. But no matter what, I’ll give God the praise He deserves.” Wow! That’s an incredible display of faith, right? But Job’s misery doesn’t end there. In fact, things got worse for Job. Satan went back to God and got permission to attack Job physically so long as he didn’t kill him. So, Satan afflicted Job with boils from head to toe.

It must have been unbearable. It got so bad his wife gave him this advice:

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Job 2:9 (NLT)

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

Can you imagine how miserable Job must have been for his wife to ask, “Have you considered just dying yet?” That’s brutal in so many different ways!

Still, despite all the loss and physical pain, Job didn’t lose his faith in God.

Jumping ahead in the story, Job’s friends showed up and basically told him that all of what had happened to him was his own fault. You see, in those times, people believed that good things happened to righteous people and bad things happened to evil people. That’s not so different from what people think today. So, with all the terrible stuff happening to Job, his friends were convinced Job must have secretly been a terrible person, and God was punishing his wickedness.

These friends didn’t miss a beat in telling Job how terrible they thought he must have been. Throughout the rest of the book, there are many conversations between Job and his friends and between God and Job. And it’s absolutely astounding to me that while Job had a lot of questions for God, he never once cursed God as his wife had suggested. He stayed faithful to God throughout the whole ordeal.

And to be clear, I’m not sure I would have been able to keep my faith in God like Job did. So, to answer our big question, “What do I do when bad things happen?” we need to look at a few insights from Job’s story:

INSIGHTS ▶ What might this scripture mean?

The first insight is:

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1. We don’t know the full story.

The more I read the Book of Job, the more I realize there are a lot of things that Job doesn’t know:

• Throughout the entire 42 chapters of the Book of Job, Job never learns about the conversations God had with Satan. He never learns why all of those bad things happened to him.

•At no point does Job know how his story is going to end. God’s going to bless him later, but he doesn’t know that.

• And Job definitely doesn’t know that people will still be talking about his life thousands of years after it happened. He has no idea the impact that his pain— and his response that pain—will have on future generations.

And despite all uncertainty, Job remained faithful. Our takeaway here should be similar; we must understand that when bad things happen to us, we may never learn the ultimate reason behind it all.

The second insight from Job’s story is that while we may not know the full story…

[show slide]

2. We can trust the Author of the story.

Throughout the story of Job, one thing is abundantly clear: God was in control of everything. There were many things that Job didn’t know, but God knew everything. God knew what was happening and how it would all end. He even knew that one day, thousands of years later, we would be here today talking about this story and asking tough questions. But there’s something else that God also knew:

He knew Job’s heart.

He knew what Job could handle and what he couldn’t. He knew how Job would respond. And God knew this experience would ultimately bring Job even closer to Him than he had been before.

And if He knew that about Job, He knows the same about each of you. God knows your heart. He knows what you can handle and what you can’t. And even if He doesn’t cause bad things to happen, He is able to use those situations to bring you closer to Him than you ever thought possible.

Finally, the last thing that strikes me about reading Job’s story is that every time something bad happens, I wish I could tell Job that…

[show slide]

3. The story isn’t over.

Have you ever noticed how, in moments of pain and loss, it feels like it’s the end of your world? That’s because pain and loss have a way of focusing our attention on the immediate, and it can be very difficult to see how things could ever get better. That’s why stories like Job’s are so important for us to consider, as they’re reminders that pain, sorrow, loss, and evil are temporary. In the Psalms, King David talked about pain this way:

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Psalm 30:5 (NLT)

Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Even on his darkest, most painful day, Job’s story wasn’t over. And the same is true for you. In those moments when you feel like there’s no way to move forward, I want you to know that God sees you. He loves you deeply. And He sees better days are ahead for you. God isn’t done with you.

ACTION (How could we live this out?)

So, what are we, as Christ-followers, to do with this? Even if you’re not experiencing pain or loss right now, I want to give you a few practical actions you can take based on Job’s life.

[show slide]

1. Keep a running list of good things that happen.

You’ll be surprised how helpful it can be in difficult times if you maintain a list of all the good things in your life that you can look back on.

Your list doesn’t have to be super-detailed; it could be as simple as a list:

I saw a pretty sunset. I got an A in Spanish. I got un-grounded two weeks early. I had a great sushi dinner.

Not only will this help you be more aware of the good that’s going on around you, but when it seems like everything is going wrong, you’ll have a list to remind you of things in your life that went right that you’ve been grateful for.

But if you already find yourself in the middle of rough times, I want to encourage you to do the same thing that Job did…

[show slide]

2. Cry out to God.

Even though Job never curses God, he doesn’t ignore God either. In fact, Job actually spends a lot of time asking God questions. Let’s look at one of his questions:

[show slide]

Job 13:24 (NLT)

24 Why do you turn away from me? Why do you treat me as your enemy?

Again, he’s not blaming God, but he does recognize God is the only one who can change his circumstances.

When we face painful situations, we have a tendency to do one of two things: (1) either run away from God or (2) run toward God. Job ran toward God in his prayers and questions. He’s a powerful example of what we can do when we’re experiencing difficult times.

You can go to God with your questions and confusion and even with your anger and complaints. God is not afraid of your anger and doubt and confusion and sadness. He loves you so deeply that He wants every part of your life to be directed at Him… even the tough parts. Remember, He’s God… He can handle it.

But what about when someone around you is in a tough spot? We know we don’t want to be like Job’s friends, but what can we do? We can purposefully go out of our way to encourage them, and that’s the third action I want you to consider.

3. Share an encouraging word/text with someone.

I’d imagine each of you has had days where you really could use encouragement from a friend. I know I have. And if it’s true for me, I’m assuming it’s true for you, too. You see, our words have the potential to be a light that can brighten someone’s dark day. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in 1 Thessalonians 5:11:

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1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NLT)

11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

Your encouragement can be super simple, like:

Hey Willow and , great job decorating my office door!

(Show pic)

Jacob, thanks for helping lead us in worship today!

Lainey, thanks for how you get everyone hyped and excited to be at church each week!

Your words of encouragement don’t have to be complicated, but they should be purposeful. You never know what someone might be going through or how much they may need encouragement from a friend.

The last thing I want to say today is that if you happen to find yourself in one of those times when it just feels like nothing is going right, I want you to know you’re not alone. You are surrounded by people who care about you and want to support you however we can. And if you’re ready to share what you’re experiencing, I want to encourage you to be honest with someone in your Summer Olympic group and allow them the opportunity to be an encouragement to you.

Let’s pray.

[close in prayer]

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Tough Questions: What Do I Do When Bad Things Happen?

CAPTURE (Why should students pay attention to and care about your message?)

SCRIPTURE ▶ What does God’s Word say?

INSIGHTS ▶ What might this scripture mean?

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ACTION (How could we live this out?)