Lost - Wrapping our Brains Around Pain

Beth and I are huge Lost fans. So if you don't watch it, this post won't be that interesting to you. Last night Hurley, who we learn won a multi-million dollar lottery before being stranded on the island, is driven to find out if the numbers he used are cursed. By the end of last night's episode, he meets the French Woman and she- who also has experience with these numbers - agrees with him that the numbers are cursed. This brings Hurley a measure of peace.

I mention this only because it was so interesting to me that the mere knowledge that what he was going through was to some extent explainable gave Hurley some contentment in his situation.

As Christians sometimes our analagous mental relationship with pain is more nuanced. Sometimes we have no immediate knowledge of why we're going through what we're going through; all we have is the knowledge of having a loving and all-wise Father. We know He knows and sometimes that's all we have to rest in. Consider: as far as we know Job never knew on earth the backstory of his troubles.