Lostand Found,
I commend you for reminding us all of this truth....you wrote" if pain and suffering are a (necessary!) part of the process required to change us from weak and carnal to strong and spiritual, SO BE IT! and while i can't claim to understand the full glory of the end of the story, i think there is more to it than "some mysterious, far off, hiding behind a bush better ‘spiritual’ development". mothers choose to have second, third, fourth babies even though they know through experience exactly what they will suffer -crazy intense pain- because it is WORTH IT. and once it's done, it's done. it'll be worth it. i have to believe that. i hope and pray that God will reveal to you (and us) some more of His plan." Your analogy of the mothers giving birth is very scriptural, too.....
Joh 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world....that is one of the things JESUS SAID WHEN ABOUT TO FACE HIS BIGGEST AND TOUHGEST TRIAL< THE CROSS!! God shows us the picture here, these are MERELY BIRTH PAINS to something glorious, far more glorious than we can even grasp right now. Of course it hurts, birth pains hurt a lot.
ARE we not supposed to consider it PURE JOY when faced with hardship and pain, because of the POSITIVE EFFECT it will have on us?...1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Why did Jesus ENDURE the cross? Because of the joy set before him! ...Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
These pains are why we need to keep the faith, and to run the race, and to pray for one another, and try to support one another in the midst of it all. Gary of course I have completely felt and thought the thoughts you have. But please, beseech God, to return yourself to your first Love, as I am also asking God to do, so earnestly. That is the greatest thing one can know. To love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. God will give it to those who ask. And do not stop knocking, do not stop seeking, until your last day. It is that important. All these questions will evaporate someday.