Re-do

**Disclaimer** I am writing this, not knowing if anyone actually reads all this, but I do owe an apology. This site has not really lived up to what it should be, because I have not been. A lot has happened since it began, not an excuse, I know, yet I find it more difficult to write lately.

That being said, you will see some slight changes in posts. I still hope to have friends post now and again, but seeing as this was my project from the start, most will be based upon my experience. I also don't want to box myself in, so I'm hoping this blog can evolve as I go along, by God's will.

So here we go!

I recently read the book To End All Wars. My parents recommended it to me and gave me their copy to read. To preface this, I was somewhat reluctant, as my parents and I tend to have differing views when it comes to topics such as wars, politics, etc., and my mom told me it would "change the way I think." Whenever someone tells me how I will be affected, I tend to become determined to have a different reaction, just to prove that I can. Stubborn, I know.

At any rate, this book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. As I read books, I keep a notebook or a computer nearby and write down different quotes and thoughts that come to mind. The following is a short paragraph that the author wrote near the end of the book. For a short background, the book was written by Ernest Gordon, who was a Scottish soldier captured by the Japanese in World War II. The book was also one of the sources for the movie "Bridge Over the River Kwai."

We did not know the full answer to the mystery of suffering, but we could see that so much of it was caused by "man's inhumanity to man", by selfishness, by greed, and by all the forces of death that we readily support in the normal course of life. The cry of the innocent child, the agony I had seen in the eyes of a Chinese mother as she carried her dead baby, the suffering caused by earthquakes, fires or floods, we could not explain. But we could see that God was not indifferent to such pain.

I was sitting at work today, looking over some of these past quotes I had marked, and came across this one, and felt compelled to post it. I remember reading this and thinking that Gordon got to the truth of the matter. While I in no way have gone through any pain or suffering remotely near what those soldiers did, I still am one who wonders about the suffering I see in this world. So many of us get hung up on it all--wondering how God could let it happen, how can we theologically explain it, how do we answer for it to unbelievers, etc.--but we miss out on the point--God is not indifferent to the pain, whatever its cause. I cannot stress how important this is!

I guess I am at a point in my life where I can see more pain around me than joy or blessings--but I must remember that God recognizes this and has equipped me to be able to cope. I am reminded of a quote by C. S. Lewis:

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

I'm sure many of you can testify to this. I pray we do not drown out his shouts!


With hope, and peace

J