“So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”  (I Corinthians 10:12-13)  In working in the church, I have encountered two troubling and interrelated answers to the problem of human suffering.  The first is this, if some trouble comes upon me, I must have done something wrong; I must have done something to deserve this.  In other words, “you always get what you got coming to you.”  The second insufficient answer is related and goes something like this: “I’m a Christian and this shouldn’t be happening to me.  I thought God loved us.”  With the first, we doubt ourselves; with the second, we doubt God.  Paul offers the Corinthians and us a starkly different answer.  To paraphrase, Paul tells us this: to follow Christ in a broken world means that we will face trials and tribulations.  It goes with the territory.  But that’s not the end of it.  For to follow Christ in a broken world means that we are following the One who has overcome the world and because of that we need never despair.  From time-to-time this One whom we follow, doubles back to lift us when we have fallen and to restore us to the path of discipleship.  The One whom we follow is faithful even when we are tempted to give up.  Don’t give up and have a great week!