I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Seems like practicing noble virtues should count for something.

The bible tells us God can’t lie, change, or think like us. That latter ‘omniscience’ is a regard that God is all-knowing.

An equal chance that a good or bad thing happening to us is improved upon by practicing good, wisdom-infused behaviors toward which God instructs and directs us tilts the scales and probabilities in our favor.

However, in a corrupt and fallen world with a tangible enemy in the mix working as hard against us as we are working for us, bad things can still happen to set us back from what had seemed like realistic and logical explanations for doing the right thing.

If we were omniscient like God, we might see that he will and does work all things together for the good who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Maybe not instantly but most certainly strategically to build faith and spiritual depth in us, God’s timeline and omniscience will produce a better outcome in the end. His end.

So still do your best, wisest, swiftest, most brilliant and favorable work, and let time and chance (God) take hold of the outcome from there.

In the end, with your dashed expectations put aside, watch him do his magic and defeat for good that which the enemy meant for evil.