Have you ever read Augustine 'City of God'? I really wanted to read his 'confessions' but haven't got it so decided on this other.
Here's a quote from Book one chapter 7 -
on the subject of 'the sun shines on the just and the unjust alike' or 'why do bad things happen to good people' (and vice versa) -
"... as for these temporal goods of this world, He hath left them to the common use both of good and bad: that the goods of this world should not be too much desired, because even the wicked do also partake them: and that the evils of this world should not be too cowardly avoided, wherewith the good are sometimes afflicted. But there is a great difference in the use both of that estate in this world, which is called prosperous, and that which is called adverse. For neither do these temporal goods extol a good man nor do the evil deject him. But the evil man must needs be subject to the punishment of this earthly unhappiness, because he is first corrupted by this earthly happiness: yet in the distributing of these temporal blessings God showeth His provident operation. For if all sin were in the present punished, there should be nothing to do at the last judgment: and again, if no sin were here openly punished, the divine providence would not be believed. And so in prosperity, if God should not give competency of worldly and apparent blessing to some that ask them, we would say He hath nothing to do with them: and should He give them to all that ask them, we should think He were not to be served but for them, and so His service should not make us godly, but rather greedy. This being thus, whatever affliction good men and bad do suffer together in this life, it doth not prove the persons undistinct, because so they both do jointly endure like pains. For the suffers remain distinct even while enduring the same suffering and virtue and vice remain distinct beneath the burden of the same affliction; {now this is the good bit....} for as in one fire gold shineth and chaff smoketh, and as under one flail the straw is bruised and the ear cleansed; nor are the lees and the oil confused because they are both pressed in one press; so likewise one and the same violence of affliction proveth, purifieth, and clarifieth the good, and condemneth, wasteth, and casteth out the bad. And thus in one and the same distress do the wicked offend God by detestation and blasphemy, and the the good do glorify Him by praise and prayer. So great is the difference wherein we ponder not what, but how a man suffers...."

Now, I have read this through more than 5 times - it is tricky (for me) to understand but it is worth the effort. One can't help praising God that Augustine didn't live in the 21st century where his teachers would be telling him that his sentences were too long if they exceeded 10 words!!!!