Article items 4-5: blaming karma and believing in superstition
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
Item four — blaming karma — gets short shrift: Mike doesn't believe in luck at all, the room riffs on "what goes around comes around" (misattributed to Justin Timberlake), "good vibes," and the gibbous moon. Item five — superstition as idolatry — turns substantive: nothing happens outside God's sovereign control, which raises the problem of suffering. Mike wrestles honestly with unanswered "why" questions, landing on Peter's "where else are we going to go?" Cody shares his own coming-to-faith questioning, wondering whether his hardships were consequences of his choices, and concludes self-reflection beat resentment.
More on Suffering
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Midlife-crisis faith questions: when suffering gets close to home
- Which of God's promises can I count on as mine when people are free to refuse them?
The hosts name the first cluster of midlife-crisis faith questions: when the broken world's weight lands close to home, believers ask whether God is really good even when they cannot see it.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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Suffering, character, and the weed-whacking analogy
- Is suffering and going through hard things worth the good that comes out of it?
The host engages Emma's core doubt: is suffering worth the good that comes out of it? God isn't buying perseverance by hurting people — human suffering is reality, and he can use it for good; it's more call to repentance than punitive lesson.
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Why people ditch God
- Why do people ditch God?
Reading a Christian Post article by Robin P. Shoemaker, the hosts work through three reasons people leave faith: bad events that wreck a life, bad representatives of the faith, and bad morals that collide with sexual freedom.
From No. 505 · Because of Fussy and Fuzzy
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Temptation four: avoiding suffering and failure — "Dan, let me ask you directly"
- Are you tempted to avoid suffering and failure?
Ben reads the article's fourth temptation — avoiding suffering and failure — and asks Dan directly whether he's tempted by it. Dan and Mike both say no.
From No. 429 · Following the American Jesus