Or what about the pain the drives people to suicide, was that moderated for that outcome?
Yeah. What about that? The pain from years of abuse and neglect that moved me to attempt suicide several times in my late teens. Forget the other times, one of them, medically speaking, there is no way I should have lived, but God saw to it that there was no effect. He left me with my pain by cancelling a 4X fatal drug OD.
Im interested in your answers cos it's not as simple as you tried to make it out to be...
Simple, but not easy.
According to Paul in Acts 17, God selected when and where we would live to provide for us the best opportunity to look for God, and I think that also includes the circumstances of our birth, defects, disabilities, like that.
I can speak of myself, and that imperfectly, since, after all, what do I really know? But I happen to think that I've been predestinated to become just like Jesus, and that's how it happens. We are all different, so it always looks different. But God does the same things with all of us, including using suffering to sanctify us.
He who has suffered has ceased from sin. Suffering has a VERY puritive effect in the child of God.
I have disabled family, including a nephew of 24 years age with a vocabulary of about 20 words. We marvel when he is able to express an abstract thought, like, "I'm happy".
My mother in law, she was one of the more difficult to see. Dementia can be a horrible disease! My wife has some fairly difficult issues also, and really, the only reason I want to stay on this planet is to care for her. Otherwise, I feel done.
My father, he gave up on life. He was in so much suffering he could have lived longer with treatment, but just allowed himself to die at 57. I really miss him, even though I hardly knew him.
Of course, volunteering in the assisted living home, with it's dementia ward, I had opportunity to see other's suffering.
I don't know, I don't want to go on and on about the misery in my life, there's plenty. Look around the forum! How many of us have serious health issues, including mental and emotional. We're a pretty banged up lot!
I don't normally talk about myself. It's not an easy answer. But the Scripture is both clear and true, and I'll answer any question you ask me to the best I can.
Maybe this . . . My sister wrote me a letter before she died from cancer a year and a half ago, one of the things she wrote to me, "I never understood how much God loves me until I was dying of cancer." I understand that, I've come to see His love in my times of hardest pain.
Much love!