If Jesus Is With Me, Why Do Bad Things Happen? Understanding Faith, Agency, and Growth

You don’t ask this question casually.
You ask it because something real has happened.

If Jesus is with you—if He sees you, knows you, and walks beside you—then why do bad things still happen? Why doesn’t He stop them? Why doesn’t He intervene before the damage is done?

This question doesn’t come from rebellion or weakness. It comes from trying to reconcile faith with reality. From living in a world where belief doesn’t erase pain.

Last night, while talking with my sister, her seven-year-old daughter said, "I don't have to worry about bad things happening to me because Jesus is with me."

While this is true, we don't need to worry, my sister explained to her that Jesus being with us doesn't mean bad things won't happen. She explained that there are still people in the world that do bad things and will harm others. And that Jesus allows things to happen so that we can learn and grow. She taught her that we have rules, like only play in the backyard, to help keep her safe.

One of the clearest principles taught in the gospel of Jesus Christ is agency.

Agency means choice. Real choice. Not symbolic or limited choice, but the ability to act, decide, and move in the world with consequence. 

Kevin G. Brown taught:

“Agency is the gift to choose and act for ourselves.
It is also the responsibility to choose well.”

That responsibility matters—because agency doesn’t just shape the person choosing. It affects everyone around them.

Much of the pain you experience in this life comes from other people’s choices. Abuse, betrayal, neglect, violence, selfishness—these are not acts of God. They are the misuse of agency in a world where freedom is real. If God were to remove agency to prevent harm, He would also remove accountability, growth, love, and moral development. The very things that make us human would collapse.

That doesn’t excuse what happened to you.
It explains why a loving God does not override every harmful choice.

But not all suffering comes from someone else’s actions.

Some pain arrives without a culprit. Illness. Loss. Accidents. Events that shift your life without warning or consent. In those moments, it’s tempting to assume that pain means abandonment—that if Christ were truly with you, this wouldn’t be happening.

Yet when Jesus lived on the earth, His life was not marked by ease. He was misunderstood. He was betrayed. He suffered unjustly. He wept. He experienced grief and pain firsthand—not because He lacked power, but because He chose to enter fully into the human condition.

That matters, because it reframes what “with you” actually means.

The scriptures do not teach that Christ prevents all suffering. It teaches that He understands it. That He redeems it. That He walks with you through it without dismissing it.

Kevin Brown taught that agency is not only about freedom—it is about growth. Choice creates learning. Resistance creates strength. Experience shapes wisdom. Without opposition, development stalls. Without trial, character remains untested.

So the question begins to change.

Not Why does God let bad things happen?
But How do I move forward in a world where agency exists, and who am I becoming as I do?

Jesus does not promise a life free from hardship. He promises presence. He promises that pain is not meaningless. He promises that what you endure can shape you without destroying you.

That doesn’t remove the hurt.

But it means this moment is not the end of your story.

And sometimes, that truth is enough to take the next step.