At the tender age of 18, I was appointed to my first church. On Saturday following my first Sunday there, the main man in that congregation, a husband, a father, a grand-father, a leader in the community was killed in a tragic farming accident. Without a single course in theology or pastoral care, I was confronted with the question, “Why do people suffer?” My simple answer as a teenager was “I don’t know.” The number one question people would ask God if they could be assured of an answer is “Why do people suffer?” I will not attempt to answer that question in this sermon. Instead, I want to offer some thoughts that I know to be true. Among them are these:

I. Suffering Happens

“Never morning wears to evening but some heart breaks, a heart just as sensitive as yours and mine.”

Suffering c…