On Wednesday night in our first livestream, I preached on the providence of God, which is an important doctrine for interpreting such events. This Wednesday night I will preach on why God allows suffering, another great related topic to understand according to scripture. What else is there to get? How about this? Count it all joy. We fall into diverse trials, troubles, or temptations. Joy relates to the ultimate fulfillment that we experience through the beginning of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, what we have studied on Sunday evenings. This is being blessed, truly blessed. This is in James 1:2. When you know what life is about, you know that you can fulfill it in the worst of times. This is not about making you happy, but giving your life meaning that brings sustaining satisfaction. That can be done in the best of times and the worst of times. The era in which we live brings a lot of superficial conveniences that mean the best of times. People have to give up their regular pub time, their concerts, and their professional sports among other things. These cumber us about. Even when Martha was cumbered about with much serving, that was viewed as lesser to Mary’s part, which was to spend time with Jesus. You can be alone in a prison cell and spend time with Jesus, if you know Him and you know enough of His Word to meditate upon. We’ve been given a wealth of resources for believing and practicing scripture, but with it has come the softening priv-ilege. This is nothing close to the Black Plague, but it gets our attention.