What Bad Things?

Stimulus

There were once five students studying together in a famous and important university. They were reading their holy book and came to the point where it says ‘We must thank God for the bad things as well as the good ones’. They were puzzled, and took their question to the Professor.

‘We understand the part about thanking God for all the good things,’ they explained, ‘but why do we thank God for the bad?’. The Professor wasn’t too sure of the answer. She sat back in her chair and thought about it for a while. ‘This is a question for Zushia. Go to his house and ask him’.

The students asked how to get to Zushia’s house. The Professor gave them directions and they set off straight away. The path led them out of town and into the woods. ‘How can anyone live out here?’ one of them asked.

And the directions that the Professor had given them led to an old shack. It was falling apart: the walls were wobbly, the windows were cracked and the roof leaked. The students were worried to knock on the door in case it fell over. But they did and a little old man came to the door and invited them in. He had an eye patch, and only one leg. There was barely enough room for them to all get into the shack, and all five of them had to sit next to each other on the bed because there were was only one chair.

Zushia apologised that he had no food to offer them but would they like a cup of hot water?

One of the students asked the question that they had come to him to answer:

‘Why are we told to thank God for the bad things? We don’t understand.’

Zushia frowned, and looked around him nervously.

‘I’m very sorry, but… I thnk you’ve had a wasted journey. I’m completely the wrong person to ask.’

‘But we thought you knew the holy book better than anyone else,’ they protested.

‘It’s true that I have studied the holy book very carefully,’ Zushia agreed, ‘And I know the page that you are talking about. But the problem is: nothing bad has ever happened to me.

Task Questions

• Do you believe that nothing bad has ever happened to Zushia?
• Why might Zushia believe that nothing bad has ever happened to him?
• Would life be better if no bad things happened?

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