Comment from Tim

I'm thinking about Tim's speech today. One of the things he said was that "suffering happens. It's a part of life." I've grown up in church and I've asked this question before. It's been explained to me many times. I even understand what has been explained to me. But still I come back to the question of why would a God who loves so much allow suffering, sickness and pain to occur.

What I'm getting at is this. When I was younger, I remember going through some stuff in my life that really kind of messed me up. It was very painful, brought a lot of depression and frankly, it was just extremely hard to deal with. I remember my mom and dad saying that if they could take it away, they would.

What that showed me was that my mom and dad saw what kind of pain I felt. They felt it with me. Yet, here's a God who has the ability to take it away, yet doesn't. My parents said they would take it away if they could but they can't. They don't possess the ability. God does possess that ability but doesn't act on it. How/why is it that God won't take it away but my (human) parents would?

I look at Ben fathering baby Ellie. I know that if he had the ability to make her better when she's sick or not feeling well, he'd do it in a heartbeat, without question because he doesn't want to see her struggle.

God has that ability but still allows struggle and pain. Why?

I understand the biblical explanations people give me but I don't understand the practical reason.

One of the things that Tim said is we can trust God because He's God. I truthfully think that is all I have because it makes no sense any other way.