Does God only punish people after they die?

I am an atheist and I mock the Christian God all the time. Also I love pointing out all the contradictions and absurdities in the Bible. My life is really good and as far as I know nothing really bad has happened to me. Then I had a co-worker that is Christian get really sick. Then I thought to myself, "well that doesn't seem fair." So why does God not smite people anymore? Does he wait until death for some reason now unlike in the Bible? When did God decide to stop smiting people?