Fi tries to nail down some of the things we are longing to know while we suffer:
- there was some good reason for my trouble. Even if I've been wronged, I want to know that there is a bigger picture that brings sense to all this, that there is some good reaching over it all. I want to know that my suffering didn't just come from randomness, negligence or cruelty.
- something good will come of my suffering. I don't want to go through all the pain and it be for nothing.
- it won't always be like this. I want to know that, one day, it will be well, and it will be good.
It's a good list. There's real value, I think in prising things apart so we can see what's going on in our experience. Sometimes our 'sicknesses of the soul' can be better treated once they are carefully diagnosed.
Needless to say, preachers need to work hard at this.
