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THURSDAY THOUGHT 10/2/08

“Why, Lord?”
 
Sometimes it just hurts — the man inconsolable after the death of a 40-year partner; the alcoholic who, again and again, fails at recovery and must live with profound and bitter self-hatred; the cancer sufferer who finds that nothing — no, nothing, and certainly not prayer — provides any relief from the torturous pain.
 
I have no brilliant answers.  But I do know that, having myself endured dark and hopeless loss in the past — pain and loss that just kept on coming and coming beyond belief and beyond endurance — for me, at least, it eventually ended, healed, turned to new joy.  Still, I have seen way too much raw suffering in recent days, and my comforting is little more than pathetic and ineffective “there there.”  
 
My point?  Little comfort, perhaps, but I suspect we all, at one time or another, voice the, “Why, Lord? question.  My comfort to those who suffer is small: that you are not alone, and that God does — He MUST, for all we believe — have a plan and a care and a purpose.   God bless and pray for all who suffer.  — jri
 
“And he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee: for my
strength is made perfect in
weakness.”  
    –    St. Paul