I've been teaching a lot lately on death, suffering and pain. In short...Theodicy. The problem of evil or why bad things happen to good people. I teach on these things without really having experienced much pain, or having questioned God's goodness in my own life. That is until this weekend.

Saturday morning I woke up to a phone call from a good friend from Kansas City who told me that one of our best friends from college had died the day before. Now this is normal stuff, but not for a 29 year old guy. I mean how many 29 year old, healthy males die every year of heartatacks? I just don't get it.

I taught a few weeks ago that the pain that we experience in this world is just an indication or warning light that says to us, "Something is terribly wrong with this world." Well I still believe that, maybe even more than ever.

When I think about the loss of my friend Paul, I realize that this is not how God planned for life to be. Not that God created us to never experience pain, but that he never inteded us to have to experience pain in the way that we know it today.

While I don't totally understand why Paul's gone, I do know that while I am here on Earth, I'm going to make my life count.

Dale