[Trapped]

awareness, Your catheter story made me laugh because that's how I think too. I had a similar situation when I was younger where I had to give up my dog because of other people's decisions and choices, not mine. I was devastated. As we were driving to give the dog away, the rain got so bad we began to turn around to abort and try again another day. Although I was struggling with the Lord at the time, I more than willingly thanked the Lord for giving me a few more days with my best buddy and thought the Lord cared because He could see how much I was suffering at the impending loss.

A little while later the rain abated and we turned back around and gave the dog away. While it was painful already, the "psych!!!!" moment in the middle made it all the worse, as if the Lord knew I was devastated and thought to add a twist in the middle just to let me down and make it that much more painful. Guess He didn't care after all.

I recognize that using outward circumstances is a fools errand in identifying God's care and would make God schizophrenic since our life is a constant stream of ups and downs. But it seems like people point to outward situations all the time as an indicator.

I can't imagine being God and giving the "all clear" for suffering to pour out on Job......and then turning around and trying to claim that I loved Job. Not sure if Job's first set of kids appreciated the "care" either.