Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

This is an entry from my M BLOG over at TruthLoveEnergy.com where I share channeling with clients and students from around the world. "Channeling" is the practice of going into an altered state of consciousness and being able to tune into another consciousness, energy, or level of the self, and then being able to deliver that through communication, healing, or insight. It's not all that strange, really, because most forms of true creativity are forms of channeling; I just happen to specialize in connecting to a consciousness who claims to be an entity named MICHAEL (hence, M BLOG) with a teaching to share. The body of knowledge that has come to be accumulated over the years is known as THE MICHAEL TEACHINGS. There is more about all of this at my work site (truthloveenergy.com), so I won't go into a lot of details here, but if it makes more sense for you to think of this as a creative writing practice, then that is just fine with me, too. Maybe that IS all it is, but whatever it is, it helps bring about some perspective.

Over the past few blog entries, I have been asking some tough questions of life, and here is where it led me:

It's been weighing on my mind for some time now about the WHY of "bad things" happening to people who just don't seem to deserve such a hard time. For instance, I feel like I have done nothing to warrant my having almost died, being dumped, and now living with a terminal illness. It just doesn't seem fair.

It's a difficult question to ask of ourselves, or of others, or of our concepts of "God," and even of Michael.

WHY!!!??

Why ME!??

Why HIM??

Why HER?

WHY Them!?

WHY!!??

Is there really going to be an answer that satisfies us? It seems the only time we can find even a bit of relief from this question is when we are not going through whatever struggle we feel had been imposed upon us. At those points, it seems we can sort of see from a higher perspective and grasp these larger patterns of our lives. We might be able to make sense of all or part of a tragedy, or find a sense that there was nothing higher involved at all, but that it is normal to grieve, to feel loss, to mourn.

As I have been going through a lot, lately, it has caused a sensitivity in me for the pain around me. I've always had empathy in that way, but now it is almost unbearable. I see people as more fragile, scared, and struggling, even as they maintain their status quo, smiles intact, and keeping busy. It's been hard for me to shake this. On the one hand, this gives me this beautiful sense of the innocence in all of us, but on the other hand, it feels like an overwhelming futility to care so much; like my head and heart are just going to be crushed under the weight of it all.

When I feel down or face difficulties in my life, one would think I turn immediately to Michael for insight and guidance, but I just don't. Part of what I have learned over the years in my working with Michael is to learn how to trust and access my own sense of wisdom and direction and sense. I always turn to me, first. Much of the time, I am able to access that inner wisdom and compassion and work my way through the most painful and challenging aspects of life. When I cannot figure things out, I then turn to friends, even before Michael.

I think I don't immediately turn to Michael for insight or guidance for the same reasons that Samantha of Bewitched denied her magic: you just want to figure things out on your own. It's empowering, and Michael would agree. Beyond that, I just don't want to treat Michael like some god that has all of the answers, because, frankly, they don't.

But more often than not they do have incredible, vast wisdom that does transcend the claustrophobic pain of being in a body, and it's nice to hear what they have to say.

So I posed the question:

Why do "bad" things happen to "good" people, Michael?

MICHAEL: When one equates pain with punishment, and pleasure as reward, it is easy to grasp why one would grow into a personal world where one is either punished or rewarded. Most of your species are raised on philosophies of "good" vs "bad," which carries over into the personal score cards of life, efforts, and choices, leaving one to believe he is, ultimately, either "good" or "bad," and deserving of appropriate responses from life. If one is "good," one should not receive punishment, or "bad things" should not happen. If one is "bad," it makes sense to many people that nothing "good" should happen to a "bad" person.

In reality, the concepts of "good" and "bad" are simply irrelevant. "Bad Things" do not happen to "Good People;" LIFE HAPPENS. It is not an either/or scenario, but a range of experiences. "Good" and "Bad" are entirely relative. Many of you may feel your lives are a series of sufferings and sacrifices, but many others would gladly trade their own lives for yours. This relativity does not diminish the experience of pain for any individual, however, because the root of all WHY involving "bad things" is BLAME.

Blame is a locking mechanism; an anchor to your pain. It does not allow for the higher perspective, or the comprehension that could bring peace. In a personal world of punishment and pleasure, reactions to difficulties can become a game of blame, with "thank you's" for the "good," and "fuck you's" for the "bad."

Asking WHY is a valid question, but most do not really mean WHY when faced with tragedies and suffering, but WHO. Who is going to pay for this? Who did this to me? Who is going to fix it?

Life is neutral. It is a space in which to exist as a Being. To blame life for the "bad things" that happen is like blaming a chess board for your loss of the game. The various concepts of "god" are just as encompassing, containing the "game board," if you will. Blaming "god" for your sense of punishment is like blaming a country club for your challenges in playing golf on their course.

Blaming others for your pain and struggles is just as empty as blaming yourself. The reason we can say this is because blame is a form of finding fault, not of insight or direction or solutions. Your life is not someone else's fault, and your life is not your fault.

Your life is simply YOURS.

Part of growing older as a soul is in being able to recognize that ALL of it is simply YOURS. These are YOUR experiences. It is not "good" or "bad." It is not "empty" or "full;" "rich" or "poor;" "happy" or "sad," etc. until you assign it those terms. It is valid to recognize where your experiences are within your defined spectrum, but it will always be valid and empowering to remember that "this is not all there is." As with your feelings and experiences, so does your Life change.

What happens in your life is most often a product of choice, but when it appears that it is not, you still have a choice as to how to respond to it. Blame, and asking WHY (read: who) is a sort of marinating in pain, holding fast to an entitlement that does not exist.

One of the most freeing statements one can make in times of confusion, pain, anguish, tragedy, disaster, illness, depression, accidents, etc. to the point of crying out WHY is:

THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME, INCLUDING ME, BUT THERE ARE MANY TO HELP ME, INCLUDING ME.

Identifying and dealing with that which may have been the cause of the WHY in your life is valid and healing, but Blame is simply something that goes to bed with you at night, and weighs on your shoulders during the day, trapping you in the past with "what if's" and "should have's." Blame can create a tapestry of connections among your experiences that tightens
throughout your life and sifts out all of the experiences that you
would normally enjoy.

When you ask WHY in times of pain, be gentle. You are not being punished. You did nothing wrong. You are simply trying to make sense of something that is bigger than your current perspective. Always give yourself time to digest, slowly, at a pace that is not defined by anyone, but you. There will come a time again when your heart and mind can wrap around a painful, confusing experience and you may begin to see the patterns, the beauty, and the potential benefit of even the most horrific of events.

Wail in anger, curl up in despair, fold up in grief, but know that it is only one of many experiences you have had, and will have, in your life. There is no conclusive state, "good" or "bad," for any of you; there is only emphasis and focus. At times when the focus and emphasis is on the difficult, allow that to be your focus to the extent that it is necessary, but it will free you from the trap of suffering when you actively remember that it is not a conclusion and that there is no one to blame.

There are no benevolent or malicious beings competing over your soul or your life, wielding out rewards and punishments, randomly or with meaning.

There is only CHOICE. And what you choose to do, next, will always be your choice.

-MICHAEL

Hmmmm... well, for me, this doesn't bring a whole lot of peace right at this moment, but it does offer a perspective that could lead to less-painful days wasted on the WHY's in me, when I could be focusing on the WISE in me. I know better than to blame, but I never thought of my crying out to the world, WHY, meant anything related to a focus on blame... but that is totally where my heart is when I ask that question, now that I think about it! I hadn't considered that before. In that respect, this was very liberating.

So what is your input or response to this post? Use the COMMENTS link to add your responses to this discussion!