We are often asked as Christians by those who don’t believe, “If God is real, why do bad things happen to good people?”
I recently heard a story that poses an answer to that very question:
So, a pastor walks into a barber shop to get a trim. He sits down in the chair, the barber throws the plastic apron on him and they start talking. At first, it was just the typical small talk you’d expect from any barber shop, but eventually the conversation moves to be a bit more personal. The barber asks the pastor what he does for a living, and the pastor answers. The barber looks at him, as he’s trimming around his ears and says, “Ok, but there’s no such thing as God, so why would you want to be a pastor?”
Of course, the pastor is taken back and just responds with, “What makes you think there is no God?” The barber responds, “Well, if there was a God, why would so many bad things happen to good people?” The pastor casually brushes off the question to avoid confrontation and the barber finishes up the haircut. As the pastor leaves, he shakes the barber’s hand and tips him well.
The pastor then walks outside and notices a homeless man laying on a bench close to the barber shop. The homeless man is hairy and grungy and looks terrible. He taps the man on the shoulder and says, “Listen, come with me.” So, the homeless man gets up and follows the pastor back into the barber shop.
Everyone inside stops and looks as the two walk in. The pastor quickly says, “Hey Barber, there’s no such thing as barbers!” The barber replies, very confused, “What are you talking about?” The pastor says, “Well if there was such a thing as barbers, this man wouldn’t be out here all hairy or grungy like this.”
The barber looks at the pastor confused and says, “The problem isn’t that I don’t exist, it’s that he never came to see me.”
Satan has reign over this world, and he is the one causing evil things to happen in our lives for the sole purpose of pulling us from God. God wants us to lean on Him in times of trouble, to show us that even though Satan exists to steal, kill and destroy, God is there to comfort us and make us whole again.
So maybe the problem isn’t that God doesn’t exist, but rather that you haven’t gone looking for Him.
