Love's Playbook 11: Is Suffering Necessary?

Is suffering necessary? I gave this title to the eleventh book in Love's Playbook series because I hope when you have finished reading it you will have an opinion on this ancient question that has troubled minds for millennia. There is plenty of data in these historical stories to support it one way or the other. If you've been reading this series you know that the main quest in every book is to see if the Biblical accounts will support belief in an all-good God. After 30+ years experience as a family systems' therapist, I needed to answer the question for myself--though I think I carried it around as a child. Before writing this I have been known to say, "Pain is inevitable on this planet; suffering is optional." More Buddhist than Christian, it is a valid earmark for attitude or perspective. I won't tell you what I think, because I haven't fully finished formulating it. This is a book that requires careful consideration of all the factors involved. Writing it held some big surprises for my point of view--and this is very familiar territory for me. Looking through a family systems lens was helpful to understanding but not necessarily to how I felt. This is the record that begins with the split kingdoms of Judah and Israel. In approximately one hundred years Israel will not exist. Then Jonah the prophet has his hour on the stage learning what he needs to learn. He grew up in fear of the Syrians and Assyrians who were and still are ravaging and pillaging from Egypt to Chaldea. A succession of kings and prophets lead from Jonah, Amos and Hosea through Isaiah and Jeremiah. Great men with difficult missions. Some of the kings were responsive and had thrilling rescues; some had tantrums and killed the prophets. Finally and sadly Jerusalem is burned. Full-disclosure, I struggled writing this part of the Bible even Isaiah, which is my favorite book and partially included here. I have loved Isaiah's symbols and prophecies which helped make sense of the question of evil allowed by a good God. Enjoy these stories, good, sad, and ugly. The bit of researched back-story added is true to Spirit.