Al Lingren, a professor at Garrett Evangelical Seminary, tells about taking his junior-high-school son fishing years ago. It was one of those days when the fish wouldn't bite, so the two of them had a lot of time to talk. Out of the blue his junior-high son asked, "Dad, what is the toughest thing God ever tried to do?" 

Al said that the question caught him, a minister, off guard. He didn't know what to say, and so like a good teacher a…