When Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People in 1981, I believed that he was writing to me.   You see, this book was the product of a personal tragedy in his life that made him re-examine his beliefs about God and the ways of God.   I too was living in the midst of a personal tragedy. 

My son, Mathew was born in March, 1980 with profound brain damage, cerebral palsy, and a seizure disorder.   Like the author, I too believed that I was living a more religiously committed life than many other people I knew with healthy children.   So questions started to creep up.  How could this loving God I had faith in allow this to happen?  Why should my son be subjected to physical and psychological pain everyday of his life? 

One of the ways we try to make sense of suffering is to assume that we get what we deserve, or somehow our adversities are a punishment.  Yet I came to understand through prayer, consultation, and scripture that God is a loving God and does not cause these things to happen. 

Life happens!  It has nothing to do with deserving or not deserving things, nor is it a form of punishment for things we have done.  God wants us to know that his son, Jesus, died for our sins and that when life dishes out hardships, He is there to walk with us through the valleys.  God is our comfort and strength in the midst of the pain – not the cause of it.

I pray that if you are walking through the valley, you know that God is there with you, ready and willing to help, if you just ask!  I am also here to help.

May God bless your steps through life.