The first and foremost reality is that suffering and death are not only enemies of life, but a means of reminding us of life's twin realities, love and hate.

intellectual answers to the problem of pain are important. But intellect alone cannot help us navigate the minefield of pain and suffering. Other worldviews may offer intellectual answers. Christianity alone offers us a person.

Note that in normal cases of procreation, parents risk bringing a child into a lot of suffering; even the most fortunate of human lives is accompanied by seasons of serious suffering. Even more than that, parents procreate knowing full well that one day the child will suffer death.

suffering" (Hebrews 2:10). I have often pondered this text. How is One who is already

The problem of pain has remained the single greatest question, not only for the skeptic who uses it as an excuse to doubt God's existence, but also for the believer who questions God's purpose.

suffering," he said, "is mortality itself, which is the prime condition of life.

I learned that what happened to me did not have to define who I was. My past could not control my future unless I allowed it to.

God is excited about your future, and I hope you are also. Don't let the discouragement of the past steal the amazing future that is yours.

God may be telling you to go back to the place of your frustration and pain, and allow Him to walk you through that doorway and into victorious living. Do not run from His invitation to emotional healing.

A lot of people let the past dictate their future. Don't do that! Get past your past. We all have a past, but we all have a future. The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 2:10 that we are recreated in Christ Jesus so we might do the good works He planned beforehand for us and live the good life He prearranged and made ready for us.

And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheefully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait... And as to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)

I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself