The testimony of Scripture is that all things work together for good to those who love God. We have a Christ who gathers up the fragments so that nothing is lost. Without suffering there would be no sympathy; without hardship there would be no hardihood; without pain there would be no patience. There is no way to holiness except through hell. There are two ways to react to the troubles of life. Jacob said, “All these things are against me” (Genesis 42:36). But Joseph said, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul, after being shipwrecked, stoned, beaten with rods, meeting with false brethren, enduring a thorn in the flesh year after year, could say, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor things present or things to come, nor principalities or powers, nor any other created thing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus, our Lord (Romans 8:38–39).…