1. Thanks for this, Christopher. When trouble times rock our world, it’s so important for us to maintain an eternal perspective.
     
    I don’t think you were pushing this point in your post, but any time I see this topic raised, there’s one thing I cringe to see: The idea that God is somehow causing this evil event in the course of His “working together for good”. Too often, I’ve heard Christians imply or outright say that God is in control and, therefore, God did this.
     
    The English phrasing of that scripture in Romans 8 sometimes gives us the impression that “God causes all things”. But I believe the point of the sentence is that God causes ANY thing that happens to work together for our good. For example: a serial killer murders a child. That’s a terrible crime, an evil act. God didn’t cause it. But immediately, God starts working. He starts moving and arranging and influencing — all with the goal of turning an evil act into as much good as possible.
     
    In His love, He allowed the free will that brought evil into the world. And in His mercy, He immediately and continually works to mitigate the impact of that evil.
     
    At least that’s the way I look at it. Scripture seems to support a number of interpretations to the whole question of free will / predestination, source of disastrous and harmful events, etc. So I’m not here to defend my point so much as to share my desire that people don’t mistakenly blame God for these deaths.
     
    Thanks again for the words of comfort. I pray that people turn to the Source of all comfort during this time, instead of being driven further away from Him by their pain.

What do you think?