bad things happen to good people

Good Things Happen to Good People

We all know that there is a common nomenclature which suggests that bad things happen to good people, but also good things happen to good people. And if you think about it, more good things happen to good people than happen to bad people.

The truth is, no one is totally immune from experiencing something bad, and as some of us know, bad things, while they may be very bad, also come pre-loaded with lessons to be learned and blessings to receive (though some are harder to find than others).

We generally think the especially good people should be able to avert suffering altogether, though this is not true. We think they are more deserving of good things, and they are.

All that said, there are good things that happen to good people. Though some bad things may happen, it is far more likely that good things happen to good people. It’s just that when the bad things come, you notice it more because you’re more acclimatized to the good things in life.

I don’t really know if we really have a definitive explanation which describes what “good people” might be. Good people can be found in all walks of life. All we know for certain is that when we think of them, we think of them as good people.

I try to be one of the good people, but I am just as human as anyone else, for who of any of us is perfect? Certainly not me, and I’d rather be anything but “normal.” Nonetheless, I strive to be good and given the chance to err on the side of good, that would be my intention, and I would like to think my base reaction.

I think that you and I, we can consider ourselves as among the “good ones,” and I think people do notice how grateful we are for the good things that happen to us. We are grateful for the good things far more often than upset about things which catch us by surprise.

We maintain an attitude of gratitude and a general humility about the good things that happen without the propensity to brag or boast about all the good things in life that find their way to us.

For onlookers who are watching me, they are upset when something bad happens to me, but I find it curious that they are jealous if something good comes my way. Maybe they only voice,

“I wish something good, like that, would happen to me.”

But, deeper inside, there is a darker egoic thought pattern at work, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They might even wish that some bad would befall me to kind of keep me in check or balance. It’s all quite normal, and there is no judgment here.

We’re all doing the best we can with what we have.

Want better things?

If you want better things to be occurring in your life on a regular basis, you might consider trying to be a better person. What that means, who could say?

No one is saying that you’re not a good person already, certainly, you are. But who of us couldn’t be better?

The more you spend time and energy loving, giving to and caring about others, the more good things happen to you. It just is.

Why Everything in My Life is Going Wrong

You know what I mean: That chaotic point in your life when you raise your hands, look up at the sky and ask yourself, “Why is everything in my life going wrong?” It’s frustrating and can be very painful to be at the place when I wonder why everything in my life is going wrong.

A Wake-Up Call to Something Greater

You know the feeling: that chaotic moment when you raise your hands to the sky and cry out, “Why is everything in my life going wrong?” It’s a painful, frustrating place to be. Yet, as overwhelming as it feels, this seemingly senseless chaos may hold a deeper meaning than you realize.

The Hidden Purpose Behind the Chaos

When everything feels out of sorts, it can be nearly impossible to see the bigger picture from your current perspective. In these moments, it’s vital to pause, step back, and get out of your head. Instead of overthinking, shift into your heart and do what I like to call a “love-scan.”

Ask yourself: What is life trying to tell me? What needs my attention?

Sometimes, the answers are hard to find on your own. That’s when reaching out to someone—whether a friend, spiritual advisor, or professional—can provide the clarity you need. A fresh perspective can reveal opportunities or insights just beyond the “trees” of your current situation.

Lost in the Woods of Life

When life feels overwhelming, it’s easy to get stuck. Maybe you’ve made a comfortable spot for yourself in the metaphorical woods. You’ve built routines, created a semblance of stability, and found ways to manage the chaos.

But what if you’ve forgotten the journey you’re meant to be on? What if maintaining the status quo has distracted you from pursuing your highest and best self?

When this happens, life has a way of shaking things up. The discomfort, the chaos, the sense that nothing is going right—these are often signs that it’s time to realign with your greater purpose.

The Wake-Up Call

When life feels unbearable, it’s often because you’re not in alignment with your purpose, message, passion, and mission (PMPM). The universe, your higher self, or even divine forces may be trying to get your attention.

Why? Because your unique gifts—the ones only you can bring to the world—are too important to remain dormant.

You have a message, a song, a purpose that only you can fulfill. And there are people out there who desperately need to hear it. When you’re out of alignment with this calling, life will send you signals. Those signals often feel like everything going wrong.

When Overwhelm Takes Over

Sometimes, the weight of life feels so heavy that you’re constantly putting out fires. You barely make it through today’s crises and dread tomorrow’s challenges. In these moments, it’s easy to lose sight of your potential.

For some, the chaos becomes so unbearable that they consider checking out early, contemplating suicide as a way to escape the pain. This breaks my heart because it represents a tragic loss of untapped potential.

If you’re feeling this way, know that you’re not alone—and you’re not without hope. For every person who reaches this point, there are countless others who have found their way through the darkness to discover their true calling.

The Pain Is a Message

Pain often feels like a punishment, but it’s more like a message: something is wrong. Maybe you’re in the wrong place, pursuing the wrong path, or holding onto something that no longer serves you.

The discomfort is a signal that it’s time for a change—a big, uncomfortable change.

Your Higher Calling Is Waiting

When nothing seems to be going right, it’s often because something better is waiting for you outside your comfort zone. The chaos you’re experiencing isn’t random—it’s a wake-up call.

This is your moment to step back, reassess, and ask:

- What am I holding onto that’s no longer serving me?
- What’s the bigger picture that I’m not seeing?
- What’s calling me forward?

How to Move Forward

Here’s how to turn the chaos into clarity:

1. Seek Perspective
  Find someone you trust—a friend, mentor, counselor, or coach—who can help you see what’s beyond your current viewpoint. Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh set of eyes to illuminate the path ahead.
2. Embrace Change
  Recognize that this is a pivotal moment. It’s time to let go of what’s holding you back and embrace the unknown. Change is rarely comfortable, but it’s often necessary for growth.
3. Reignite Your Purpose
  Reconnect with your PMPM—your purpose, message, passion, and mission. What lights you up? What impact do you want to make? Let these questions guide your next steps.
4. Take Action
  Start making small, deliberate changes to align with your higher calling. Each step, no matter how small, moves you closer to the life you’re meant to live.

You’re Not Alone

Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Reach out for support, lean on those who care about you, and take comfort in knowing that this difficult chapter is part of a greater story—one where you rise to fulfill your potential.

Your Breakthrough Awaits

When everything seems to be going wrong, it’s often because something extraordinary is waiting for you. The chaos is your call to action—a reminder that you’re destined for more.

Embrace the discomfort, take a deep breath, and step boldly into the unknown. Your highest and best self is waiting.

You can do this. And you don’t have to do it alone.

He’s Gonna Get His

When you experience, witness, or hear about someone’s wrongdoing, it’s easy to respond with a nonchalant, “He’s gonna get his,” which casts a powerful karmic spell. Take heed about wishing karma on someone because if it’s cast with malice or negative emotion it will backfire on you.

He’s Gonna Get His

This is a basic fact of the divine balanced nature of life. Everything that goes around comes around but it is not up to you or me to decide when, where, or how karmic justice will play out.

We can participate by casting our karmic spells, aligning ourselves with the justice of divinity. Your heart is a powerful energetic tool which can cause you to reap unforeseen karma yourself if you do not do so with a pure heart.

The saying, “He’s gonna get his,” is a shorthand reference to the more descriptive,

He is going to get what’s coming to him

That is to say, if someone thinks, says, or does something with malice of intent to take advantage of someone, to disrespect God or His creation, to do harm to someone or something, or even to neglect or ignore someone in need, that this will in some way revisit the very same person, in some way, possibly when he least expects it.

This gives us all a chance to revisit our selfishness, our egos, which for the most part run unbridled sometimes without a thought of how our thoughts, words, or our actions might affect others and the world around us.

Karma is not about revenge, karma is about love, about having the chance to make right that which was wrong in perfect balance and harmony. Karma is not about crime and punishment. Karma is about perfect love. Perfect love casts out all fear and all negative emotions which are connected to fear.

Karma is a bitch

How you can cast a karmic spell using the phrase, “Karma is a bitch,” with purity of heart is beyond me but it may be possible, if it can be said without any negative (fear-based) emotion.

Take heed: If you cast a negative karmic spell on someone, any negative emotion ricochets the spell back on you.

The Born Loser

The Born Loser refers to the person, who is not a bad person, but he just seems to have the worst luck No matter how hard he tries, he gets stuck in the never-ending cycle of bad luck, seemingly out of proportion to any deserved karma. Sometimes people will grab onto the idea that he is paying a karmic debt from a past life.

More often than not, if you dig deeper, you discover that he is paying the price of casting karmic spells with an impure heart.

The Born Loser is likely one who passes judgment on others quickly, and casts the karmic spell to in effect punish people whom he has defined as abusive or criminal and in need of a serious readjustment, not realizing that any negative emotion, which is not pure love, will bounce the karmic spell back onto he who has cast if.

While the Born Loser might be an extreme example, I think you get the idea.

You might know someone (someone you may know intimately, who might even be wearing the same skin as you) who seems to be experiencing a disproportionate degree of negative karma.

If you look closer, I think you will find that this person is casting negative karmic spells and reaping the rewards for doing so. I see it all the time. I think you will too, now that you know what to look for.

The cure is simple. Stop casting negative karmic spells.

It’s simple but it’s not easy to stop doing something you’ve been doing for a long time and instead; doing the opposite, casting spells of pure love, free from judgment or angst.

It doesn’t happen overnight (though I have seen people change instantly due to an epiphany or major paradigm shift) but you can learn to replace a negative thought with a loving thought.

All your effort to move from fear to will pay off in living a better life, your best life, and who knows? You might even end up making the world a better place.

It all starts right here, right now, if you choose. It’s your choice.

You can change your whole life

Note: While the theme of this article was written addressed in the masculine, it applies to the feminine just as well.

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Ever sit back in your easy chair and wonder, “Why bad things happen to good people?” You might know the best person, who lives a good life, gives in service to others, supports friends, family, strangers and the community with loving kindness, yet here they are; amidst a life crisis that no one should have to bear.

You might know this person so well, you might be sitting in his or her chair right now wondering why bad things happen to good people. You’re a good person. It’s not like you do anything wrong to other people. You’re a good and faithful servant. You’re growing and expanding every day, yet here you are face-to-face with the most incredible challenge; one you would not wish on your worst enemy.

As hard as it might be to fathom the idea when you’re amidst the storm of a life trial, there is a divine thread which connects all issues in life to lead us to our highest and best potential. You are blessed with opportunities to grow and change throughout your life, leading through various stages of metamorphosis as you continue on your life’s journey.

If you are WAY out of your comfort zone, feel severely challenged, overwhelmed, or find yourself sinking into a depressive state, chances are you’re facing a huge growth spurt on the other side of this time in your life. If you choose to embrace it.

You could, on the other hand, turn from it, not rise up to the challenge, and give in to the idea of accepting your lot in life as a mere mortal; a victim of life.

Or you can post up and ready yourself for battle, face the challenge head on, and emerge the victor, an inspiration for others who might be facing similar circumstances. The choice is yours, whether you accept the invitation to grow or to submit yourself to being victimized by life circumstances.

This is why it appears that bad things happen to good people. But if you can step back and look at bad things that have happened to good people, you see that some of the greatest, most inspirational stories have come from people who have overcome insurmountable odds, the worst imaginable things no person should ever have to bear. In this respect, there are no bad things, only challenges which are opportunities for growth (sometimes, enormous growth).

So, here you are. Possibly facing a circumstance that is impossible to imagine. You haven’t done anything to deserve this, yet here you are.

What will you do when faced with this challenge?

Sure, this would have taken out anyone else with a heart in a heartbeat. But what about the next person. Is it possible that your story, the story about how you faced, battled and defeated this dragon, going to save the life of someone else who may find themselves facing a similar dragon in the future?

Believe me, I know people who have done just that; they have looked fear, suffering, false accusations, physical and psychological trauma, and death, in the eye and definitively stated, “I will not let you take me out.”

Then, pick up their metaphoric sword and conduct the grueling hand-to-hand battle, emerging victorious, and lived to tell their story.

And I can tell you, people who have gone through such a transformative process are very different people than they once were. The person who comes out on the other side, even if they engaged in the battle and it may have appeared to us (the exterior witnesses) they lost the battle, the warrior is nonetheless transformed and has grown so much from the process.

Does that mean you have to fight every battle? No. You get to choose the battles you engage in, so pick your battles wisely, and in doing so, you can help to make the world a better place.

Stay in tune with yourself and document your progress, as you pave the way for others who may be following in your footsteps.

It’s no accident you’ve faced the challenges that you have encountered in your past. No matter how you came through that circumstance, you made it here, and your story beckons to be told to others who are treacherously approaching a challenge, like the one you had to endure.

This is your time, this is your moment, take charge, inspire or help someone else.

Your experience might save someone’s life.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Ever wonder why do bad things happen to good people?

It seems like the people who would otherwise deserve to have only the best things in life, because if anyone was deserving of it, these people would be, they’re courteous, kind, loving, giving, even self-sacrificing, always more concerned about the greater good.

Yet, sure enough, when the cards of life are dealt, they appear to suffer injustices in spades. Why does it appear like that?

A common response is, “God only gives us what we can handle,” with an underlying supposition, something to the effect of, “So, God must think I am,” (or some other good person is), “stronger than Superman!” As if the hardest of times visits the most powerful and superior candidates.

In the search for truth, one might ask, “Do bad things happen to good people?”

The answer is, “Yes. Bad things happen to good people.” Therefore, it is true, bad things do happen to good people, but as much as this is true, other antithetical truths also prevail. Just as “What goes up must come down,” and, “The quickest route between two point is a straight line,” are both truth, other truths exist that are contrary to those truths also.

That being said, here are some alternative truths to consider in regards to bad things happening to good people:

Bad things happen to all people
Random things happen, at random times, involving random people
Some people attract circumstances unconsciously on purpose
Some (bad) things must occur to further a grander purpose, or lead to evolution
Bad things are not bad

Bad things happen to all people

Negative circumstances are not respecters of persons. It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, if you were on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, you dealt with the same circumstance as everyone else on that trip, whether you were a good person or a bad person. This includes random accidents, acts of violence and natural disasters.

Random things happen, at random times, involving random people

The common colloquialism is simply, “Shit Happens.” And indeed it does. Random things happen, that may well be part of some kind of domino or butterfly effect. Nonetheless, where such things intersect with a particular human being, could be a coincidence.

Some people attract circumstances unconsciously on purpose

According to the Law of Attraction, that which you focus on increases. That means, if you intensely focus on being wronged, you are likely to attract more being wronged. In this scenario, good people could (unbeknownst to themselves) attract more bad circumstances by focusing on their being the victim of an injustice.

Some (bad) things must occur to further a grander purpose, or lead to evolution

Sometimes in life, bad things happen to good people who can use their unfortunate experience to have empathy and offer support to others who have suffered a similar wrongness, change a paradigm (either from within themselves or even the community at large), leading to transformation or evolution and making the world a better place.

Bad things are not bad

Then there is the less popular truism, “There are no bad things.” This is the idea that all things – even if their intention was bad or to cause harm – was actually just the opposite. This is where I like to hang my hat because based on my experience all of the things I have experienced that were less than my best, wrong, full of bad intentions or meant for evil (even with the highst degree of malice and forethought) have all actually been the best things in my life.

These were the moments that forced me to change direction radically, which was painful at the time, but has always led me in another direction or furthered my personal revelation or enlightenment.

So, let me ask you

Why do bad things happen to good people?

My Life Has Been So Awful

Ever have those debilitating thoughts that keep you from pursuing an enormously successful life? You might have resigned yourself to recite the mantra, “Life sucks,” ad infinitum or may have heard the thought inside your head,

“My life is so awful, I could never amount to anything”

Have you suffered what seem to be insurmountable life circumstances that prevent you from being able to have the success you desire?

Let me propose to you that inside every adversity and substantial life challenge there is the seed of a brighter future, but it’s up to you to nurture it to see your life flourish either in spite of or as the result of a tragedy or injustice.

For instance,

A three-year-old boy abandoned by his father, as he grew he was moved constantly from town to town, struggling to make ends meet, reading and learning was complicated due to dyslexia and he was unable to complete high school.

A ten-year-old innocent child suffered familial sexual abuse. Unable to cope, she became sexually promiscuous, became pregnant at age 14 and lost her son shortly after giving birth.

A fifteen-year-old girl witnessed her mother shoot and kill her out of control alcoholic father in self-defense.

An eighteen-year-old boy whose father committed suicide following his parents divorce.

A nineteen-year old young woman was given less than a two per cent chance of living when she contracted an infection went into septic shock resulting in amputation of both legs and the loss of her spleen.

A twenty-year-old man with a dream, set out to share his cartoon art only to find himself unable to support himself became homeless, found a friend in an equally lonely rodent, showered at the train station at was forced to file bankruptcy.

A 25-year old burgeoning drug dealer was arrested at the Kalamazoo airport with over 650 grams of cocaine and promptly sent to prison.

A 28-year-old man burned over 65% of his body in a motorcycle accident, and if that wasn’t bad enough, four years later was involved in an airplane crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down due to spinal injuries.

There is no doubt these people represent those of us who face challenges that make us feel unworthy of accomplishing much at all, due to what might appear to be insurmountable circumstances.

Yet, even faced with such adversity, as these people were, they turned their hardships into the fuel that would lead to living lives that inspire as the rest of us admire them for the people they have become.

That three-year old boy became a well-known actor, producer, director and musician. You might remember Keanu Reeves from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Matrix, or any of the other films which have contributed to his notoriety.

The ten-year-old sexual abuse survivor grew up to be a talk show host, actress, producer, publisher, owner of her own television network and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, the wealthiest African-American in the 20th century.

The fifteen-year-old girl who witnessed the murder of her father by her mother is a South African and American actress and film producer. Charlize Theron has received acclaim for her work as well as recipient of the Academy Award, Silver Bear, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The eighteen-year-old boy whose father committed suicide following his parents’ divorce turned his attention toward sports and ended up playing for the Boston Celtics. Larry Bird is a 12-time NBA All-Star, won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and currently serves as team president of the Indiana Pacers.

The nineteen-year old who lost her legs is an American actress, model, world-class snowboarder and 2014 Paralympic bronze medalist, co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports, professional motivational speaker, clothing designer and author, Amy Purdy.

The twenty-year-old bankrupt cartoonist who befriended a mouse was entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer, Walt Disney won twenty-two Oscars, two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. As well as founding Disneyland, Disney World and EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow).

The 25-year old imprisoned drug dealer survived his prison sentence using humor as his coping mechanism. Following his release, he tried standup comedy on a dare, and developed his “toolman” persona based on personalities of other prison inmate personalities. Actor and comedian, Tim Allen is best-known for his ABC television show Home Improvement and has enjoyed success during his Hollywood film career.

28-year-old man with the worst luck of all became known as W Mitchell, an American motivational speaker and businessman. He lives in Santa Barbara, California and maintains a second home in Hawaii, is a millionaire, former member of the United States Marine Corps, a paraplegic, and was elected mayor.