Why do bad things happen to good people? It is a question all of us ask from time to time. Some of Jesus' listeners asked him this same question. They brought up a recent news story about some Galileans who had been cruelly offered as human sacrifices by Pilate. Were they greater sinners than others in Galilee that they should suffer so? A tower had fallen in Siloam and crushed eighteen bystanders. Was it because of their sin?

Jesus had already dealt with this question when confronted with a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples wanted to know was it his parents' sin or his own that was responsible for his condition? Please note, if you have not already done so, that Jesus consistently condemned the notion that human tragedy is punishment for sin. In the Sermon on the Mount he established this sacred principle once and for all: "[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." (Mt. 5:45)

In other words, God does not reward us according to our virtues or punish us for our transgressions. Not in this world. We are forced to conclude that there are some things in this world that just happen as a consequence of the physical laws which govern this universe. And sometimes they happen to the best of people. Church buses loaded with Christian young people get swept into rainswollen rivers. Christian old folks die with cancer. Entire Christian families have been wiped out by drunk drivers behind the wheel of high-powered automobiles. Some things just happen. Somebody was in the wrong place at the wrong time. SOME THINGS IN LIFE WE CANNOT CONTROL.

We want to control them. THIS IS WHAT SUPERSTITION IS ALL ABOUT. We carry around a rabbit's foot or hang a horseshoe or consult a horoscope in order to control our fate. In order to control that small area of life that is unknowable and uncontrollable. Maybe something good will happen to us. At least, maybe the bad will somehow be warded off. Sometimes our efforts border on the absurd.

Did you hear about the young man who was caught carrying a bomb on an airplane? When confronted with this, he claimed that he always carried a bomb with him on airplanes. After all, he asked, what are the odds against there ever being two bombs on the same plane?

Remember that tragic incident in which the top was ripped off of a jet flying out of Hawaii and a flight attendant was sucked out to her death? When the mangled jet landed, another flight attendant on that same flight made plans to fly home on the next available plane. Someone asked if she was not nervous flying again so soon after this harrowing experience? Her answer was that she felt her number had already been called once and she didn't feel it could be called again so soon.

Her reasoning reminds me of that old story about the man who was nearly panic-stricken on his first flight. The pilot came back personally to calm him down. "Are you a religious man?" the pilot asked. "Yes," the man replied. "Don't you believe that when your time is up, you'll go and not until then?" the pilot asked. "Yes," the man replied. "Then what are you nervous about?" the pilot asked. The man said grimly, "I'm afraid your time will come before mine."

Such reasoning gets very complicated sometimes. When we attempt to control our fate by the use of a charm or a ritual or trust in fate or the stars or whatever, this is superstition. Most superstitions are harmless. Sometimes, if they give us confidence, they can even be helpful. If we use them as a substitute for helping ourselves or trusting God, however, they can be destructive. Nevertheless, we need to understand the difference between superstition and authentic Christian faith.

SUPERSTITION IS AN ATTEMPT TO MANIPULATE THAT PART OF OUR LIVES THAT IS BEYOND OUR PERSONAL CONTROL. If I carry a rabbit's foot with me, I am trying to control my luck. I may do this as a substitute for hard work. What poorly prepared student has not hoped for a multiple choice test? At least I might get lucky, we think to ourselves. That is superstition--trying to control the uncontrollable. AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN FAITH IS SOMETHING ELSE. CHRISTIAN FAITH AT ITS BEST IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO USE GOD, BUT A WILLINGNESS TO SURRENDER CONTROL OF OUR LIVES TO GOD.

Analyze your prayers sometime. Many of us use our prayers to manipulate God. We want Him to adjust the weather to our liking. Or to change our boss' attitude or to help us win the lottery. We seek to advise God as to what we think is best for us. Rather than trusting that He in His omnipotence and omniscience knows best, we seek to guide Him, to control Him, to use Him.

Do you believe that God knows what's best for your life? Do you believe that God's will is for your best good? Or do you secretly try to manipulate God to work things out the way you see best? It is the rare Christian who has the spiritual maturity to truly pray, "Not my will, but yours be done."

Jesus did not want his interrogators to get bogged down with this question about why bad things happen. He wanted them to understand their responsibility for making good things happen. He tried to get them to see that WE ARE NOT TO CONCERN OURSELVES WITH THOSE THINGS IN LIFE WHICH WE CANNOT CONTROL. RATHER WE NEED TO CONCERN OURSELVES WITH THOSE THINGS WHICH WE CAN CONTROL. Some people sit around and speak sadly about what life has done to them. Jesus says to them and to us that on the day of Judgement we will not be asked what life has done to us but what we have done with life!

Jesus used the parable of the fig tree and said that if it does not bear fruit, cut it down. He was saying to them and to us that we are responsible for bearing fruit, for making a difference, for taking responsibility for that part of life that we can control. We are not to be superstitious, trying to win the favor of fate. We are to be soldiers of the Cross battering down the gates of hell.

In one of his books Charles Colson points to the great disparity these days between professions of faith and actual performance. Ninety-five percent of Americans claim to believe in God. More than 50 million Americans claim to be "born again." Then why, Colson wants to know, do they not make a greater impact upon our society? Why do not more lives show the telling force of Jesus Christ? "The answer," suggests Colson, "is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor martyred by the Nazis, labeled cheap grace: the perception that Christianity offers only a flood of blessings, the rights of the Kingdom without responsibilities to the King." Cheap grace! Religion without a price, without a cost, without the cross! (1)

H.G. Wells once wrote an essay on that tribe of people he called the "goodness sakers." These are the folk who see something that needs doing, or see some social evil, or detect some moral shortcoming, and they stand and wring their hands, and say, "For goodness sakes, why doesn't someone do something about this?"

It is WE who have been called to do something. We cannot answer the question why there should be hunger in the world, but we can do our part to see that some of the hungry are fed. We can't answer the question why sometimes healthy adults with families are struck down in midlife, but we can be there to bring comfort and to supply both material and emotional support.

A young university student visited Wolfgang von Goethe, the noted author and requested an autograph and a few wise words. Goethe thought a moment, and then wrote: "Let each person sweep in front of his own door, and then the whole world will be clean." Each person doing his best, linked to other persons exerting their best efforts, can accomplish great things. (2) That is our calling. We cannot solve all the world's problems but we must do what we can. I heard about a humorous example along this line.

During the Nazi occupation of Paris, a husky storm trooper stepped into a subway car and tripped headlong over the umbrella of a little old lady sitting next to the door. After picking himself up, the bruised Nazi launched into a tirade of abuse, then bolted from the car at the next station. When he was gone, the passengers burst into spontaneous applause for the little old woman. "I know it isn't much," she said, graciously accepting the compliments, "but he's the sixth one I brought down today."

We all have our part to play, I guess. Do you see the point, though? We are constantly asking God to solve the world's problems. He is asking us to do the same thing. We need the spirit that Winston Churchill embodied so memorably. As Great Britain was fighting for its life during World War II before America's entry into the war, Churchill wrote to President Roosevelt, "Send us the tools and we will do the job."

That ought to be our approach to prayer. Rather than praying for peace in the world, we need to pray that God would make us peacemakers. Rather than asking God for special favors, we need to pray that He show us someone less fortunate than ourselves who needs our assistance. Is your faith mere superstition or is it authentic Christian faith? Do you attempt to use God or are you willing to be used of Him?

Are you like Winston Churchill or like James R. Bailey, the Superintendent of the Fort Worth, Texas, public schools? Meeting one day with a citywide Parent Teachers Association, Bailey sought to communicate openness and accessibility. He told the audience he would be pleased to speak with them any hour of the day or night. "In fact," he said, "here's the telephone number..." and proceeded to recite it. There was a sudden outcry from Assistant Superintendent Joe Ross. "Hey!" Ross shouted, "That's my number you're giving out!" (3)

Bailey was having some fun with his assistant superintendent, but isn't it true that if God needs something done, we really hope that He will call Mother Teresa's number or Billy Graham's number or at least the pastor's number. We hope He calls anyone but us. And yet we are in this together, my friend.

A sailor was leaning on the deck rail when his buddy stuck his head up through a nearby hatch. "The ship is sinking!" his buddy cried.

The sailor shrugged. "So what? It's not my ship."

I'm certain that he learned in a few moments that it was indeed his ship. We are all in this together. If the world goes up in flames, it is our world. We are accountable for what we contribute.

We are not comfortable with the concept of accountability in the church today. Maybe Colson is right. Maybe cheap grace has about done us in. Maybe we need to go back and read why Jesus said that sheep will be separated from goats, tares will be tossed into the furnace, and fig trees will be cut down and why.

Is your religion authentic Christian faith or mere superstition? Is there room for a cross in your life? Are you using God or is He using you? Why do bad things happen to good people? That's a tough one. Here's one even tougher. It is the question Charles Colson asked. With so many persons in this land who claim to be followers of Jesus, why are we not having more influence? Maybe it's because some of us are out searching for fourleaf covers rather than taking up a cross and following him.

1. Donald W. Morgan, HOW TO GET IT TOGETHER WHEN YOUR WORLD IS COMING APART, (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1988).

2. JOHN R. BRANHAM

3. Stephen Jannsen