He did not understand his misfortune but accepted it as the will of God. The same mentality existed at the time of Jesus. The New Testament is loaded with people suffering illness. At one point His Apostles even asked Jesus what did this man do that he should be stricken. We suffer on account of the existence of evil.
Evil is a distortion of good.
That does not mean that God punishes us for something we did wrong here. A person does not go blind because they sinned, as an example. As stated above NO ONE escapes the cross. It is what we do with it that will either crush us or help us to grow. We know of the existence of God but suffering can cloud our wisdom and vision at times.