There is certainly enough tragedy in this life to go around. Just check how long it takes your evening news broadcast to get to the first good news of the night. With all of this, there are Christians who see everything as God's judgment on some person, group, or nation for sins they have committed.
The disciples approached the man this passage, John 9:1-7, with that kind of an attitude. Since he was born blind, it must be the fault of someone who sinned. While some tragedies are certainly the result of sin, and God may very well use natural disasters on occasion as judgment, I believe the vast majority of "bad things" that happen are the result of living in a fallen world. So in a sense, they are the result of sin, but of the original sin of Adam and Eve, which led to the curse.
Jesus turns the disciples' opinion around. It wasn't the fault of anyone, but "happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." This man had suffered all of his life to this point, but God would bring His glory out of that situation. While we do not enjoy going through suffering, it is important to realize that even in our worst circumstances God can bring about His glory. He may not choose to deliver us from those circumstances, as Jesus did here, but He can still use us to glorify Himself.
Jesus' actions here puzzle us. (Perhaps some are even grossed out by them. Would you want mud made with spit put on your eyes?) Why the mud? The early church writers didn't find this as puzzling as we do; there is a fairly consistent theme through several of the fathers. Irenaeus is a representative example: "To that man, however, who had been blind from his birth, He gave sight, not by means of a word, but by an outward action; doing this not without a purpose, or because it so happened, but that He might show forth the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man." (Against Heresies V.15.2) The mud was a reminder of the earth from which Adam was formed, and its use was intended to show that the same power that made man also could heal a man.
The ultimate transformation, however, comes later in the passage. In vv.35-38 we read of a second encounter between the man and Jesus. After the man had been thrown out of the synagogue (whether temporarily or permanently is not clear), Jesus seeks him out and moves him from physical to spiritual sight. Once he realizes who Jesus is, the man falls and worships Him. The change in his life is deeper and more profound than the change in his eyesight. Unlike the Pharisees, who remained willingly blind spiritually, this man could see who Jesus really was. To gain sight when you have never seen is amazing; to gain eternal life when you are lost is infinitely greater. This man's own disability led him to the Savior.
As is common in the Bible, when we read about going through adversity we have the challenge of allowing God to glorify Himself through us. Our human reaction is to complain and pout, which only leads others to see that Christians react just like everyone else. We need to choose to honor the Lord through our sufferings, and to actively seek to proclaim His glory. It isn't easy (and despite what some TV evangelists say God never promised it would be), but in the light of eternity it is worth it.
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