Karma or Curse

Even secular postmodernists commonly refer to it as karma. It is a concept comfortably accepted and generally applied to any situation in which something bad happens to someone who has made really bad choices. I can see how the theory of Karma could bring about a sense of security and order to suffering people  desperately seeking consolation and hope for a more favorable "second round" in a next life.

The obvious drawbacks of this theory are 1) one is always striving without really knowing whether or not they have attained good enough karma to obtain a favorable after life and 2) it instills in the suffering a false guilt that they have brought the suffering on themselves from being horrible people in a past life. This doesn't seem to be comforting at all.


The Bible teaches us a  familiar (yet totally different) creed for living in which every action naturally leads to another action (sounds a bit like Newton's law!). In other words, every action, behavior and decision leads to consequences, good or bad. This is not karma, which is a theory intertwined with a belief in reincarnation, but with reaping what you sow. Sow seeds of kindness, and watch the effects of your love bloom in the lives of those you have blessed. But what about those who are choked by weeds that have been planted in their garden of righteousness?


How do we respond when bad things happen to good people? Wasn't it King Solomon, the wisest person ever to live on earth, who reminded us the rain falls equally on the just and the unjust? Reaping what you sow is real, but so is Adam's curse. It is fair to say that Solomon was right when he simplified for us the reality that trouble and suffering don't discriminate. Trouble could care less whether you have a PhD or an 8th grade graduation. Cancer, for example, will attack whether you spent your life helping old ladies walk across the street or were mugging them mercilessly at night.

Suffering wasn't in God's original plan. When we look at sickness and suffering through the eyes of the fall, we still hate suffering but can tolerate it slightly more when we realize it won't stick around forever. Unlike bad karma.

God's word is filled with promises to lean on. When bad things happen even when we have sown righteousness, we have the reminder from Romans 8:28 that nothing can separate us from the eternal love of Christ. If you are currently suffering you might say, "So what? I am still stuck here in this misery. Who cares if God cares"? Ok. You shouldn't totally deny your emotions or you will never grieve properly. But you should show caution so you don't let your mind dwell forever in that dark place, either. The journey should only entail pit stops and not settling in permanently. If you settle in the desert you will only ever be surrounded by sand.  Continue on the journey and the desert will one day be in your rear view as you drink from the well of an oasis. Emotions are fickle and they betray us. But God's love lasts forever.


Beloved, the curse seems an unjust punishment, until compared in view of God's overwhelming mercy. Unlike the curse, his love will endure forever--and that's a long time!