“Surely, this is not God’s will for me.” It was a statement born out of an extreme trial, a thought that came back over and over again, bouncing off the pain, like a relentless pinball machine. As my friend said it, I could hear the weariness in her voice. It was an echo that reverberated through my own heart, through the years of past difficulties and the long moments of present hurts. Sometimes it felt like God was absent in my pain. As we cope with the traumatic, the une