Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does this stuff always happen to me? Why am I the one to suffer this?

At one time in my life this was my response to every challenge or unexpected unpleasant outcome I experienced. I had been taught (aka trained) to believe that if you are ‘good’ then ‘god’ will bless you with good things and protect you from bad.

This thinking led to so much suffering, not the least of which was depression. I strived every day to do the right things and still I had ‘bad’ things happen to me. Devastating things. Abusive things. Bad things.

I sat and asked god why. Why god? Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?

In a very real way this question implies that it should’ve happened to someone else instead of me. Most of the time though, what happened isn’t something I would wish on anyone else.

Then I received two life changing messages:

• life doesn’t happen TO us, it happens FOR us, and
• the Universe is always conspiring on our behalf.

I started discerning the difference between ‘god’, ‘GOD’ and ‘the Universe’.

I began to see the god I was raised to believe in is actually a god made in the image of man. This god has all the characteristics of man. This god is vengeful, demanding and loves conditionally, is jealous, and has wants and needs and even feelings.

GOD, however is what Indigenous people call the Great Creator. This is not a chess playing god. This is not a doomsday god, to be feared. This is a Being who loves us unconditionally with no judgements. Just a Being of Love that is our Source of Life.

This GOD created a Universe for us to have all kinds of experiences that being of perfect love we could not experience otherwise. In order to understand what it means that we are beings of light and love, we had to have a playground full of duality. Without darkness the light cannot know itself. And GOD designed this Universe so that it is always conspiring for our highest good.

Soon I found myself replacing ‘Why me?’ with ‘Why NOT me?’

I starting looking for the message in the mess. Asking ‘why NOT me?’ shifted an energy inside me. I started looking instead for what I could learn from the situation. What was the Universe trying to teach me? How can I grow from this?

This served me very well for a very long time.

There was still a downside though. When unpleasant (I don’t like using the word ‘negative’) outcomes / events occurred it prompted me to look for the message in the mess. I was looking for the ‘what was I not learning?’ that the Universe was trying to get through to me. The underlying belief was that I was failing because this wouldn’t be happening if I had just ‘learned the lesson the first time’.

Somewhere along the way I had come to see that in every situation -pleasant or unpleasant- I was both student and teacher. Every encounter with another human being was offering me something to learn and also something to teach. Sometimes I was learning a negative space lesson, meaning I was learning how NOT to be by the other person’s behavior. Sometimes I was learning a positive space lesson. In those negative space lessons, I could easily see how I could be a teacher by behaving in the positive space. (Using imaging negative and positive terms.)

But what about those situations then when I found myself in VERY unpleasant situations, not caused by any wrongdoing on my part? When I was treated unjustly?

At one time I had been very defensive and felt the need to defend myself against every single person’s judgement of me. So naturally, initially, I thought it was my lesson in letting go of what people think of me. And I believe that was accurate for quite some time.

Then the unthinkable happened.

I was unjustly, illegally, unfairly, unethically accused of something and was given consequences that negatively impacted my personal and professional life. There was no proof against me, yet I was not allowed to defend the finding. I was denied the due process guaranteed by law.

The kicker is I did EVERYTHING ‘right’.

So I struggled one more time. What is the Universe setting me up to learn? What lesson is there for me here? I did everything right. I couldn’t think of one thing I could’ve done differently or better.

I sat down with Spirit (GOD) to try to understand. ‘I don’t get it. Why is this happening for me?’

And Spirit responded, ‘Who better?’

It was like a lightening bolt. An energy shift so immediate and powerful that it was life changing.

Who better to be used as a Divine Tool?

Who better to carry the Message?

Who better to set up the lesson?

Who better?

I was being used as a tool for someone else’s lesson – actually, for many someone elses’. There is no-one-thing for ME to specifically teach these people, but my impeccability made me the perfect choice for the Universe to expose the ignorance, arrogance and deception of those involved. The situation, created by party 1, exposes their abuse as a result of my sharing the truth in order to defend myself. The situation, egregiously compounded by party 2, exposes their hubris and fallibility. This is all being done for THEIR highest good!

I can’t know for certain, of course, but if I use my own life history as a reference, I might presume the Universe has made many previous attempts to teach each party their respective lessons, but they did not learn the message from those messes. So, now here we are at a place where my impeccability is the mirror for their imperfections.

Now just because I was being used a tool doesn’t mean there wasn’t also something for me to learn. My first inclination was to resign to the situation, thinking that it was about me learning to let go of what people think of me. But my soul wouldn’t let that rest – because that wasn’t the purpose, and if I walked away I couldn’t be used for the lesson. (How did I know my soul wouldn’t let it rest? Because I found myself using the phrase ‘soul crushing’.)

This situation also exposes the die-hard belief I’ve had that doing all the right things right, prevents wrong things from happening. In other words, the belief that right begets pleasant and wrong begets unpleasant. It is a tough one for me to kick because it was ingrained into my foundational belief system upbringing.

Always the teacher, forever the student.

So next time you are challenged and find yourself asking ‘why me?” or even “why NOT me?”, ask yourself instead ‘WHO BETTER to participate in a Divine Conspiracy?’

And don’t forget to express gratitude for the honor bestowed upon you to carry out such an important mission!

Jade is an intuitive/psychic healing facilitator who advises on spiritual matters as it pertains to navigating life.  

The content on this site is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.

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