Gratitude is a form of preparation for the suffering that we all endure

One of the saddest complaints I often feel when the tragedy hits is “why me?” It is an absolutely natural question while we face suffering, pain and pain, and in the population of God of the Bible they certainly shout it in their anguish.

But it’s an unanswered question. It is more a cry of pain and loss existential than how a rational query is not looking for a concrete response.

The question could be asked “why not me?”, The purpose of God is much more than simply to put my life comfortable. But a much more important form of the question – much less often asked and equally unanswered – is “why me?” When it comes to blessing and happiness. Why was a life of joy, comfort, a satisfactory career, a family, a abundant access to the things I love me? What did I do to deserve it?

I could have also been born in Sudan to starve or civil war before reaching a few weeks of age.

It was this absolutely essential gratitude that prompted me to faith as an adult converted and provided me and my wife the prospect of citing pain and loss in our life (we buried two children).

Suffering is part of a context in which I am sure of the promise of God who will work for the good for those who love him (so the apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Rome), although little I see him now.

This attitude is personified in the book by Job of the Old Testament, in which the character of the title loses everything: his wealth, his family, his health and is on the ground covered by painful bubbles.

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But in his affliction, Job “does not charge God shocking”. Instead, he observes astutely that “man is born in trouble, while the sparks fly up”. It also accepts that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.