Why do bad things happen to Christians? Isn't God protecting them?

Have you ever wondered that?  I know many have.  I love the way John 15 explains it.

John 15:1-8(NKJV)

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

It's interesting that just the other day I was watching a video on Youtube about pruning Lilac bushes.  Lilac is my favorite smelling flower.  I have two bushes that are huge but they don't put out many flowers. 

What I learned from the video is that to make my Lilac bushes produce more fruit they need to be pruned.  Parts of it need to be trimmed away.  In the case of my bushes they have not been done correctly that I am going to need to start over.

I need to cut them all the way down to ground level.  That will be pretty traumatic for the bushes.  But it is only through that trauma can they be made to be more productive.  Make sense?

Or another way of saying it is that there are some life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.  

Now if we look at the highlighted part above what did Jesus say?  Every branch that doesn't bear fruit to God is simply snipped away for good.  But even the branches that are bearing fruit for God need to be trimmed back (trauma) so that through the lessons learned they can bear even more fruit. 

And that is why bad things sometimes happen to Christians.