I was praying and thinking during my long drive home tonight on a dark, rainy night about the hurts we experience in life. One of my sons is experiencing the heartbreak that comes with the unexpected end of a treasured relationship. Others close to me are experiencing disappointment for a variety of reasons. Most of us know at least some of that emotional pain that is at times more intense than physical pain.

As I contemplated the pain we all experience at various times during our lives, most often the result of people betraying or disappointing us, I thought of the scriptures that tell us "All things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

I thought about the many times in history when something that seemed bad was used by God to bring about something good, and I wondered. What if we could come to the realization when we're in a painful circumstance that it's something God will use and when we look back on it later we realize something good came of it? Would it still hurt?

I think it would. I think it hurt Joseph to have his brothers betray him and sell him into slavery. I think it hurt him to be thrown into prison by a man he had served faithfully, after being falsely accused.

I think it hurt Jesus when he was whipped, beaten and nails were driven through his hands and feet. I think it hurt him to die a death of suffocation while he was hanging on a tree. I think it hurt him to watch his closest friends scurry fo cover when he was being captured and subjected to such treatment.

Perhaps the realization that something good will come from our circumstances will help us get through it. It might not ease the pain, but at least we can be confident there's a reason for the pain.

Meanwhle, there's the blues . . .