"God is not necessarily going to take away all our difficulties. He does something much more wonderful, which is to join us in them. Thus they become redeeming and healing for ourselves, and at the same time a means of healing for everyone we love, and indeed for everyone in the whole world.
"In the parable of the Prodigal Son, both sons treated their father outrageously — one by living the good life and making a mess of it, and the other by behaving well, chiefly for the sake of receiving the inheritance. Yet the father never complained or even reprimanded either one of them. What was the bottom line? He only asked them to live together in peace, because he loved them both so much.
"If you want to give God pleasure, trying to live in peace with everyone is a sure way of doing so. There is nothing to be afraid of in the present world situation. It may look like a disaster if you get injured or hurt; and it is. Nevertheless, such injury is not the ultimate disaster. For in God's goodness, everything that happens to us has the capacity to raise us up through an inner resurrection that enables us to see every tragedy, mistake, and even sin as part of God's plan for our healing."
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