12-11-14 Why is There Disease in the World?

If God is a good God, then why is there suffering and disease in the world?  Wouldn’t a loving God want everyone to be healthy and happy? Makes sense from a human point of view, doesn’t it? However, God uses diseases (like Parkinson’s disease, for example) for a purpose.

God can heal if that is His purpose for a person’s malady, but just as often He doesn’t.  His works will be manifest in a different way.  God did not heal the Apostle Paul, but left his “thorn in the flesh” for a purpose.  God uses a person in a wheelchair, or who is missing limbs, or is cancer stricken, or is deaf or blind, or struggling with a disease to comfort others going through a similar situation. These things are not necessarily there due to sin in a person’s life or in his/her parent’s life.

God allows suffering and disease in my life for a reason. He wants me to allow Him to use it for His glory. It is in my life as a tool to keep me looking to God for strength, as well as cultivating my compassion for others. If I did not have PD, I may never know God as I do now.  If I had no health issues, I could very easily forget about God, take Him for granted or expect Him to be there to entertain and fulfill my “wish list.”

Instead of being upset with God, I can be praising Him for my Parkinson’s disease.

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” John 9:1-3.

© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff