It's unfortunate that people still think along the lines of "If God loved me, He wouldn't let me suffer."
Now, there is no such thing as a perfect metaphor, but this is one of the best I've ever known.
Consider yourself as dough. God is making bread, in a sense. He mixes up the dough and puts it all in a hot oven; that oven is the world as we know it. It's pretty, but yes, we suffer. The dough must endure the heat of the oven if it is to become something better, as its maker intends. Yes, suffering makes us better. But the bread won't rise without one more important thing: yeast. That is the Holy Spirit, which God has given us. The heat of the oven reacts with the yeast and... we rise. But only those of us who accept our yeast will rise. Otherwise we'll just end up flat and... burnt.
Now, there is no such thing as a perfect metaphor, but this is one of the best I've ever known.
Consider yourself as dough. God is making bread, in a sense. He mixes up the dough and puts it all in a hot oven; that oven is the world as we know it. It's pretty, but yes, we suffer. The dough must endure the heat of the oven if it is to become something better, as its maker intends. Yes, suffering makes us better. But the bread won't rise without one more important thing: yeast. That is the Holy Spirit, which God has given us. The heat of the oven reacts with the yeast and... we rise. But only those of us who accept our yeast will rise. Otherwise we'll just end up flat and... burnt.
