When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Harold Kushner’s son, Aaron, suffered from progeria, which causes premature aging and an early death. Aaron's tragedy forms the basis for Kushner’s book. The young boy’s determination to have a full life inspired his family, friends, and schoolmates, and he was blessed with kindnesses from many people. Aaron’s story touched members of Kushner’s congregation, giving them added strength and determination to overcome their own problems and suffering. 

Kushner presents God not as an omnipotent dispenser of favors and punishments but as a deity who has created a universe over which He has limited power. God either cannot or will not intervene in human affairs, especially as doing so would violate His laws that run the universe. Nor will he reward and punish people for good and bad behaviors, as doing so would cancel the free will that He has gifted to humanity. The one thing that God wants from people is their love, and this must be given freely, or it is artificial. Hence, humans are endowed with free will that they can use for good or ill. We truly love God only when we can forgive Him for not giving us what we want; thus, we must learn to accept God as He is, as one who only imperfectly reflects our wishes. 

A character in a story from the Bible, Job lives a virtuous, God-fearing life and enjoys wealth and success. Satan suggests to God that Job would stop being virtuous if God took away Job's health and happiness. God accepts the wager and permits Satan’s agents to kill off Job’s children, burn his house, ruin his farm, and encumber Job’s body with disease. Distraught and rejected, Job laments the unfairness of his situation and yearns for a moral accounting of the reasons for his misfortunes. God appears and tells Job that He can’t administer perfect fairness, nor should He have to. Job, understanding, sits back in silent acquiescence; God, pleased with Job’s faithfulness, returns the stricken man to his former health and wealth and gifts him with three beautiful daughters. 

While suffering from his afflictions, Job is visited by three friends who try to comfort him but fail. “Job’s comforters” has come to describe “people who mean to help, but who are more concerned with their own needs and feelings than they are with those of the other person, and so end up only making things worse” (100). God visits the group and scolds the friends for misunderstanding Him, then puts his favor onto Job, restoring him to health, wealth, and family.