"Can Anything Good Come Out of Pain and Suffering?"

We have heard before that there is purpose in pain and suffering; in fact, we seek it out. We ‘feel the burn’ at the gym. Heck, we keep buying Ikea furniture in which we pay for the pain to spend hours poring over their directions, using choice words while assembling.

And then there is an illness survived or a financial difficulty overcome which we determined was worth the cost if it resulted in something positive, some newfound wisdom or personal accomplishment. But the math doesn’t always add up in a predictable way and when it comes to life and faith we find ourselves feeling at times disoriented, frustrated and longing for a past in which we knew how the math worked.