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Faith or Why Bad Things Happen to Good People
© 2003 Robert J. Chapman, PhD

A professor friend Salle has a daughter with an inoperable brain tumor. This invasive growth was diagnosed about 12 or so years ago. When all the medical options had been exhausted, the parents introduced their daughter to a psychologist who specialized in guided imagery and cognitive therapy. To make the long story short, the daughter was taught to visualize her body literally attacking the tumor and containing it and then reducing it. As this story started 12+ years ago with the diagnosis of an inoperable and terminal growth, and because this girl of 8 is now a young woman of 20 taking courses at La Salle, I suggest that there may be more ways of "killing a cat than kissing it to death" as my grandfather used to say.

I once heard (read?) the following explanation to the perennial question, "If God is omnipotent and all loving, then why does he let bad things happen to good people?" As I recall this reading, it suggested that we humans experience suffering not at the hands of the Creator, but as the result of our human condition. Acknowledging this enables us to recognize that the Creator does not inflict pain or hardship in order to see what we do, rather these afflictions present us with an opportunity for the Creator to demonstrate his love for us during troubling times. The switch that allows this healing power to flow and illuminate our path is faith. Now, I am not naive and I do not think that if I just mumble some prayer, voila, I get what I asked for. I do believe, however, that no prayer goes unanswered and the answer we get is always designed to facilitate growth…always.

Richard Bach, my favorite author, wrote in Illusions, "There is no such thing as a problem without its gift inside. The reason we have problems is because we need their gifts." I am not about to suggest that the diagnosis of a tumor or loss of a loved one or economic downturn is a "good thing," but I do believe that the fact that such "bad cards" are dealt to us, one is presented with the opportunity to learn of or do something or make a discovery that enables one to travel down that next illuminated path in life, frequently discovering a new opportunity. Another thing my grandfather taught me is, "no matter where you go, there you are…but you are never alone."

Along with yoga or meditation or other homeopathic interventions one can pursue in order to reduce stress and/or cope with hardship, in the case of something like a tumor or serious medical condition, try the following: Envision the spot where the tumor exists as a room in your home, for example the kitchen floor. Actually "see it." Note its shape, its color, and its size, all of its salient characteristics. Now, envision that spot as a spill your granddaughter made on the kitchen floor. The kitchen is your head or liver or wherever the condition exists. Now, as you relax, perhaps before or just after meditating, see yourself sitting in your kitchen, perhaps looking out the windows (your eyes) at a tranquil setting beyond, the windows are open and the sight is pregnant with the promise of yet another wonderful summer (hope and faith). As you take deep, relaxing breaths, envisions the molecules of air that you are inhaling as tiny sponges or "bounty paper towels" rushing into you body and being carried to the "spill on the kitchen floor." Now keep in mind this spill was grape juice or some other equally stubborn stain and envision those sponges working on the spot. As you exhale, see the sponges leaving your body, each soiled with tiny bits of the spill they had managed to lift from the floor. Imagery is a powerful tool.

As an old priest once told me when I spoke with him during a difficult time in my life, "expect a miracle." Remember the verse in Matthew's gospel that suggests that if we have faith, be it as small as a mustard seed, we can will a sycamore to uproot itself and transplant itself into the sea and it will be done. Now, I am not sure about sycamore whizzing through the air on their way to the sea, but I HAVE SEEN miracles and yes, at the expense of sounding like I watch too much TV, I have been touched by an angel.

It is important to remain active, as coping with strife and tribulation is most definitely challenging… However, remember to keep in mind that as you embark on your quest to remove stress from your life that there are 2 types of stress, eustress or "good stress" and distress. Just as muscle will atrophy if not exercised regularly, i.e., "stressed appropriately," so will hope suffer a similar fate if it is left unattended.

I will close with my favorite set of verses from scripture, not that I am going religious on you or anything, but in any context these words would seem, to me, to be helpful in the face of scary times:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and all your soul; be not wise in your own mind.