"He himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times..." Acts 17:20
The final day of my philosophy class everyone sat anxious in their seats ready to go. It was the day everyone had been waiting for. Topic for the day : The meaning of life. The whole semester my class had gone through every philosopical topic you could imagine while being guided by a brilliant atheist who had systematically answered every question pertaining to every topic. This secular point of view had completely torn down all "religious" answers which were merely a "crutch" to our ability to truly think. But now for the icing on the cake- could we "reason" with the ulitimate question? Could we truly create meaning? We started off with discussing that maybe the "point" was to simply be happy- to avoid everything that may cause pain and stick with doing that which is "safe." But isnt happiness momentary? That would not do we concluded. There most be another answer. Next we discussed nihilism- maybe we should not really believe in anything and accept that there is no meaning..no purpose. My professor paused. "Maybe you can just accept that life is a bitch but most people cant because most people feel that something greater transcends mankind giving us a longing for something more."
At that was it. That was the end of the class. What a joke.
One of the biggest problems people have with theism is accepting that God allows suffering and evil to exist. But what if we could turn the tables and reply that the answer is actually in the question?
What if suffering creates meaning? When someone hurts they question the purpose in it. But what if the purpose is so that person is given a broader view of the world and brings them closer to God? Suffering gives us depth.

"The fate he had been marked for he had met with vengance- he had emptied the cup to the lees; he had been the man of his time, the man, to whom nothing on earth was to have happened. That was the rare stroke- that was his visitation. It was the truth, vivid and monstrous, that all the while he had waited the wait itself his portion.
The escape would have been to love her; then he would have lived. It had sprung as he didn't guess; it had sprung as she hopelessly turned from him, and the mark, by the time he left her, had fallen where it was to fall. He had justified his fear and achieved his fate; he had failed...a moan now rose to his lips as he remembered she had prayed he mightn't know. This horror of waking- this was knowledge, knowledge under the breath of which the very tears in his eyes seemed to freeze. Through them, none the less, he tried to fix it and hold it; he kept it there before him so that he might feel the pain. That at least, belated and bitter, had something of the taste of life. But the bitterness suddenly sickened him, and it was as if, horribly, he saw, in the truth, in the cruelty of his image, what had been appointed and done." - Henry James