Live as you would have wished to live when you come to die.

As I sat sipping espinacas soup from Chile with my dear Chilean friend, Cote, she spoke of life (for those who know her, she has a lot of experience to support her wisdom).

She told me of a theorist who suggests that we always have a role to play -- classmates, students, children, parents, employees, friends, etc. The only time that we are not filling a role occurs on our way to our destinations -- class, home, work, etc.

"Life happens because of the journey not the destination." Cliche yet true.

However, I find myself in a condundrum. As a Christian, I have been asked, and wonder myself, about the problem of pain. Many brilliant minds have wrestled with God and pain (CS Lewis being one of my favorites in The Problem of Pain). And yet I still don't comprehend the problem (as I may never)...is there a problem?

What am I to say to the woman whose husband was killed in a freak accident or whose child was abused because of circumstances beyond her control? I'll mention but will not dwell on natural dissasters.

Where's God when a little girl loses her virginity to her father? Where are You when that father was beaten by his father and neglected by his mother? Do you turn your back or close your eyes? Do you subdue or drown out their cries while you graciously answer the prayers of thriving Christians or busy blessing the middle-class, American, college student with enough money to pay for the education and preparation for a successful career in pursuit of the American dream? Are you blinded by your tears?

Do you provide the pain and the remedy?

You are not fully concerned with destinations or the millions who have accepted your forgiveness would be immediately boarded on the train past the great pearlies...If you were mainly concerned with destinations, Jesus would've come, saw, and conquered death in the blink of an eye. But no. He stuck around for more than thirty years. Destinations are not your focus, are they?

However, You're not completely void of the importance of destinations. Time keeps ticking, always moving forward. It never stops; it continues to take us to our destinations...always marching forward, never stopping for anyone or anything.

If everything is in Your presence with nothing excluded including time, than nothing is unknown to You. Time nor space bind You and Your knowledge, right? To know is to be aware, and awareness results with responsibility. IF that's true, then aren't You responsible for pain?

How can I be prepared to give a reason for the hope that I have when the hope and joy of the world, the Savior of the world bears a part in the circumstances of the child born into brokeness and abuse?

Eh, enough thinking for tonight...

These are merely thoughts...to have faith means I won't comprehend everything, which makes it faith. Who do I put my faith in?