Why did God make me deaf?

Question:

Why did God make me deaf suddenly a few years ago?

I try to do good for others. I looked after my mum when she had cancer and I worked in aged care because I care. Then I sprained my ankle, got uveitis (eye inflammation), and lost my hearing only months apart in the same year.

I cried and cried and asked God why? I never got an answer.

Then I tried to sue the doctor for not giving me the right medication or sending me to the hospital. That failed too. Now I can't see Jesus as a curer or helper. He has let me down.

I still believe there's a God, but don't know who or what He is. I believe in angels too. Just not Jesus.

Answer:

"As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him'" (John 9:1-3).

People have a false idea that good things happen to people because they are owed it for being good and that bad things happen because they are being punished for being bad. This is the basic theme of the Book of Job. Job lost nearly everything he had, even though he was a righteous man. His friends accused him of sin, though they had no evidence of him committing a sin. By the end of the book, Job is not told why he suffered so greatly.

The Bible tells us that there are a variety of reasons why people suffer and many have nothing to do with the person. See Why Do Good People Suffer? Thus, I cannot tell you why you lost your hearing.

However, I do see someone who has become bitter. From the time we are born, we know that, eventually, we will die. We are only passing through this world to a better land. This world is filled with suffering and grief, but that can be born when we know where we are headed.

You, however, have turned against the Lord because you didn't get the life that you wanted. You want to blame someone for what has happened and you settled on blaming the only one who can save you and bring you to eternal life. "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me'" (John 14:6). You don't get to pick and choose who you accept as God.

"But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:10-13).

"Are they servants of Christ? -- I speak as if insane -- I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" (II Corinthians 11:23-27).

"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, 'For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:35-37).