"The truth is we may never fully understand why God allows the suffering that devastates our lives. We may never find the right answers to how we’ll dig ourselves out. There may not be any silver lining — especially not in the ways we’d like. But we don’t need answers as much as we need God’s presence in and through the suffering itself. Explanations, I’ve learned, are often a substitute for trust … The good news of suffering is that it brings us to the end of ourselves. It brings us to the place of honesty, which is the place of desperation, which is the place of faith, which is the place of freedom. Suffering leaves our idols in pieces on the ground, and positions us to see that God sent his Son not only to suffer for us but also to suffer with us. Our merciful Friend has been through it all. And while he may not deliver us from pain and loss in this life, he’ll walk with us through it. That’s simply who he is."