Obviously, if one stops with merely questioning God, one's life is hellish. (Actually, all of our lives are hellish, but some are more than others.) Can we live in hellish surroundings with peace and joy? Yes, but only if we come to believe in a loving, providential God. "Taste Him and see that He is good."
Thesis 1--God is providential. When James was 7, I told him the story of how Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, how his father (Jacob) and brothers were then saved from the famine, how the descendants of Jacob became the nation of Israel while enslaved in Egypt. James's response: "My gosh, we're God's chess pieces."
Thesis 2--God is good. A friend of mine recently expressed her exasperation with her prayer group at church: "If we pray for someone's 115 year old aunt again, I'm going to scream. If we believe in heaven, maybe we shouldn't be praying for her good health. I want to pray about real issues--broken marriages, unloving parents, etc." Indeed, do we believe in heaven--or stated more helpfully to me--"Do we believe in a loving eternal God? If so, we can believe that He wants to spend eternity with us." (This idea came from Tim Keller). So, ultimately every tear is going to be dried from our faces.
Answer--"Taste and see that He is good." One of my best friends growing up has had much more death in his immediate family than me. He doesn't profess Christianity--he is Jewish. But he believes in a merciful God. He told me that if God is not for us, then we're screwed anyway. So, he chose to believe that God is for us. Then, as he lived his life with this belief, he came to find that it is true. Indeed, he is not offended by Jesus, and probably understood Jesus' radicality more than I did for years. My friend told me that he received a Christmas present this year--"a pope that actually lives out what Jesus said."
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