Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? And, What Does This Say About God?

These are likely questions we have all grappled with at least once as we've tried to make sense of this obviously imperfect life. What we really do when we ask questions like this is cry out for an explanation of the real meaning of life itself. I mean, by asking such questions, aren't we really trying to state something far more general about life or God than is explicitly stated by these questions alone?

Uncle Albert...

When I was young, my uncle Albert lived a couple of blocks down the road from us. But, even though he lived close by, I never really got to know him very well or, truthfully, at all. Actually, he was my father's uncle which made him my great uncle. He was always very old by my reckoning, so it was difficult for a person as young as I was to know what to say to him, or if it would even be OK for a child like myself to say anything at all. Because he too was of a very reserved nature, he never spoke to me either. I never really had a conversation with him. He was a very private man, so even my father rarely spoke to him, but he spoke of him often and held him in very high regard.