You won't get any flames from me! I think that this is a case where the "prosperity gospel" has spread even further than many of us realize. It is so easy to fall prey to the notion that God's children will naturally be happy, healthy, wealthy, and protected from all serious harm and pain, and that if we're missing one of those elements in our lives then we must be doing something wrong. So then we can end up pretending that we're all of those things "good Christians" ought to be, and all the while we're dying inside.

And it's all so unlike the kind of dealings God really has with people in the Bible, and the kinds of lives even the great "heroes of faith" like Abraham and David actually led. So many ups and downs, sins and failures, discouragements and challenges -- and yet God's grace was there through it all.