Bad things happen to good people

Isaiah 57:1-2

We have all heard the words, “Bad things happen to good people” and one of my heroes of the faith is Dr. James Dobson who is a mighty man of God, wrote “When God Doesn’t Make Sense” and the story of Horatio Gates Spafford is one great example of verses 1-2.  Horatio married Anna Larsen on September 5, 1861, in Chicago.  Horatio was a man of faith in a big God, a prominent lawyer a senior partner in a thriving law firm.  Both he and Anna were prominent supporters and very close friends of the evangelist Dwight L. Moody.  In 1870 a series of tragedies began with their only sons death from scarlet fever at the age of four.  Horatio had also invested in real estate in Chicago and the “Great Fire of Chicago” reduced the city to ashes in 1871, and it was a sizable loss in his wealth.

Two years later in 1873 Horatio decided his family needed a holiday somewhere in Europe and chose England knowing his friend D.L. Moody would be preaching there.  He had a business delay but sent his family on to England, Anna and their four daughters eleven-year-old Tanetta, nine-year-old Elizabeth “Bessie”, five-year-old Margaret Lee, and two-year-old Anna “Annie”. 

On November 22, 1873 while crossing the Atlantic their ship was struck by another vessel and 226 people lost their lives, including all of their daughters.  When Anna arrived in England she sent a telegram to Horatio, it began in this way “Saved alone.”  Spafford sailed to England to be with his wife, and it is reported by Bertha Spafford Vester, a daughter born after the tragedy, that Spafford wrote, “It is Well with My Soul” on this journey as the ship passed the area where the ship sank. (Thoughts taken from Wikipedia encyclopedia)

It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
What ever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)

Isaiah’s words verses 1-2, “The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands.  For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.”   Good things happen to bad people and as the verses point out bad things happen to good people, but the righteous at death shall enter into peace, the unrighteous will enter into eternal torment.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice