Titanic, cancer, and Hitler

Well, titantic sunk.  No matter how many times you watch that movie, you always hope the ship misses that iceberg and jack lives a long, wrinkly life.
We knew the cancer would strike its final blow at some point, but I think I was still having a child-like faith that a miracle could happen...

God knew this day was coming, from the moment he started forming the stars, he knew the path my Dad's life would take.
Just like he knew titantic would sink...
So why let all those innocent people get on board that ship?  Why not cause a storm that canceled their crossing?  Why not break the ship's engine before they set off so no one could go?

In my bible study we are reading letters from a skeptic, a lot of our questions cover topics like why does an all powerful God let evil, and bad, and cancer, and ship wrecks enter the world...if He is so powerful why not have Hitler's mom have a miscarriage before this evil man was born so that Hitler never led the Holocaust?

I do not know exactly why God does not stop bad stuff before it happens, we know that bad stuff is here because of the fall blah, blah, blah...but I don't know why bad stuff happens still if God has the power to cause the flood, the red sea to part, to resurrect Jesus from the dead, wiping out cancer or Hitler should be as easy as blinking for Him...

Here is what I do know, because I am a fan of looking on the bright side or "watering the grass where I am" (name that Bieber song reference)...

I know that everyone grows from hard stuff.

We are usually wiser/stronger/hopefully closer to God for it, it makes people think about God more and cling to Him more than usual which deepens our relationship with Him.  Just like with any relationship, if you have a shared experience with someone, you are closer than you were without it.
Without the hard stuff, we are american girl dolls roaming around in our perfect barbie dream houses, not growing, or changing, or experiencing.
Maybe we go through hard stuff because it gives us a glimpse of what Jesus did for us on the cross, this shared experience of pain, betrayal, sacrifice, death, sadness, brings us closer to Christ because we are able to taste a bit of the reality of what He did for us.

If I was dating a boy who had never ran in his life...heck yes I would make him try running so he understood me better.
When I meet fellow Boston Marathoners, we don't have to explain the pain, we simply nod, respect the other person a great deal, because they GET IT, they get the training it took to qualify, to register, to wait, to train again, and to run something harder than anything we have ever ran.  They understand why we could not walk normal for a week after.
When my uncle mentioned taylor's name at the service and the whole church laughed after, we all understood why, we had a shared understanding that Taylor is crazy lol

So theres a few thoughts on hard stuff.
I'll wait for a more in depth answer when I go join Daddy.

What i have seen....is that God PREPARES us, and he reveals His plan in PERFECT timing (HIS).

If we had found out when I was a baby that my Dad would get cancer when I was 21 years old, the first 21 years of my life would have had this looming cloud, I would be afraid of getting too close to someone I knew I would have to say bye to sooner rather than later.  Instead, I got an awesome, carefree 21 years with my Dad, and another 3 years of deep growth with him and my family.  I wouldn't have wanted to know earlier.
God revealed it to us when Taytay and I were deep enough in our faith to comprehend God.  When we had a strong community.  The list goes on. God prepared us for this and revealed it in great timing.
Cancer is not always great timing, but God is.

So even though bad stuff enters this world, God still has the upper hand.