I've read the 3 Sullivan Crisp Novels by Nancy Rue & Stephen Arterburn. Loving Christian fiction as a way of escape, (& longer than a movie,) their books have been intriguing because they have a twist of a Christian counselor who is working his way through his own pain to help others be delivered from theirs.
In book 2, Healing Waters (which won Novel of the Year from Women of Faith,) Sullivan Crisp states:
I've posed the question: 'Why God, if You are such a loving being and You care about every bit of toe jam and belly button lint that affects us' - I think the Bible says that much more poetically - 'why, then, do You allow suffering?' It's a question most of us have asked, especially in our own personal moments of misery. I don't have the answer yet, because I think that I, at least, have been directing my query to the wong place. Rather than asking God, why not put the question to Suffering itself? When Suffering grabs me by the heart, as long as we're that close why not take the opportunity to say, "What's your deal? What's this about" Since we're spending so much time together, can't I ask, 'Look what do you want from me? What can I do to get you to leave me alone?' Or better yet, 'What do I have to stop doing so you can heal me?" Some of you may think this is blasphemous, but I'm not going for the shock factor. I know this to be true: since we cannot eliminate suffering in this world, we must have relationship with it, because God apparently does. Rather than merely hate it - which we have every reason to do at times - or try to eliminate it completely, which we can't do - we have to get to know it, as it so intimately knows us. That is truth. Where that takes us, we have yet to find out. And Father - please, please, let me."
For the suffering that many are enduring right now - I am praying Our Faithful Father to give you His peace that can pass any of our understanding...
