Thanks for the insightful series on the game of life. I have found it enlightening and relevant. As I was reflecting on your message about suffering I pondered the idea of looking for joy instead of the sorrow in light of the verse where Paul says “things seen are temporary and those things unseen are eternal”. So things like love, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness etc. might apply here. These are thing our stretcher carriers can exhibit, but friends can fade although they are indispensable at the time. In the end it’s our mind alone that has to square the circumstances with ourselves and God.

As you pointed out a strong faith is most important (which is invisible) in God who is invisible. I am reminded of Gods’ covenents and promises, His unchanging attributes and His plan for redemption, salvation, and eternal life. He commands us to cast our burdens upon him, His yoke is easy. He is our strength and refuge and our rock. We get by with our friends, this peace we understand, but God knows what we need before we ask.

So how do we apply these lofty ideas into comforting reality? This brings me back to the beginning of your sermon regarding a clear view of God, which means suffering doesn’t shape our view of God but God shapes our view of suffering. Suffering has immense value such as molding us to be useful for others in similar afflictions. It can test our faith to see if it is real, or serve to strengthen our faith. It can teach us obedience or put things in their proper perspective, or others may see our Christ-likeness amidst our trials and marvel, as to glorify our Father in heaven. I’m sure many other benefits could be cited. Romans 8:28 reminds us there is no ultimate calamity. In Ecclesiastes it says “for with much wisdom comes much sorrow” and “it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man….sorrow is better than laughter”. Might we, in a sense, embrace our suffering?

Of course we can’t put all suffering in a box and I agree God doesn’t afflict us with cancer and rapes and such but that begs another consideration. If a loving God is omniscience and omnipotent, why did He allow it? Could He prevent it? Did He just turn His head? Exactly how is He ‘with us’ during our trials? And what of the ultimate suffering in Hell? If we’re responsible for our sins can we lay claim to righteousness and our own salvation? Is God involved in our good fortunes? Is suffering fortunate? Boy, if anything is grey to me, this is it.

Bad things don’t happen to good people, because there are no good people. Yes, there is good in us, and that not of ourselves, lest anyone should boast. I don’t want justice, and though we always should cry with each other, undue sympathy might incite unfairness, resulting in an inaccurate view of God. Love isn’t Gods’ only, or main, attribute. Are we playing the amateur providence? In Luke 13:1-5 Jesus was asked about senseless tragedy. What would be your assessment of this text, Adam, if I may ask? Thanks again for your selfless commitment to the church.

Thank you for last Sunday’s sermon. I began wondering about how much discontent in this country was caused not by our situations but by our outlook. It seems that we are always looking for the negative, in others, in our leaders, in ourselves, and in our God. It seems even that the more positive influence a person has, the more one negative (real or imagined) can undermine all the positive they’ve done. This seems sometimes to be as true of Christians as those without a faith. We are the richest country in the world. We have all we need and enough left over to feed the world. Yet by our suicide rate, our rate of drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, etc., it would seem that we are one of the most unhappy nations in the world. Perhaps this is because we do see in black and white and ignore all the colors in between, i.e. people are perfect or evil, governments are perfect or evil, Christians are perfect or evil, and even pastors are often seen as completely perfect or hopelessly flawed in their thinking. I haven’t had time to read your new book (except the chapter you posted online), but I am looking forward to it. Thanks again for continually driving us to think more deeply about God, ourselves and our world. I am a nature lover, so I am really looking forward to next week’s sermon!