The second insight that I believe we can find in our suffering is: in our pain lies great promise. The psalmist wrote: “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps 30:5b). “Those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy” (Ps 126:5). The purpose of suffering is not the suffering itself. If we think it’s about the pain, we have missed the point. The question central to all suffering is not the backward-looking “Why?” but rather the forward-looking “To what end?” It is of the