"Dark and Lonley Places"

Dark and lonely places often become a part of our lives, even when we don't desire them to, or even welcome them.  They still come, and we try to bargain with God so we won't have to go through them.  But we go through them non the less.  But are they a necessity in our lives.  Some say that it's not fair for us as christians to have to go through these dark and lonley places.  These desert or waste land or wilderness places.  These barren regions.  Some say, because we are children of God, and because He is such a loving and kind God, that He should not allow us to go through those dark and lonely place.  One person even told me that it was unfair and unjust for them to have prayed so hard, asking God for something they wanted so badly, and God seemed not to hear them, thus allowing them to slip into a dark and lonely place.  They begin to wonder if God really does care about them.  They are still, in that dark and loney place.  No one likes the dark and lonely places that we have to go through.  Sometimes we trip and fall, or make mistakes when we are there, in those dark and lonely places.  So, why would God allow us to go through these desolate places?  Is it to punish us?  Or to exact some sort of revenge or vengence on us for some wrong or evil that we  have done as this person seems to have come to believe?  Is it to make an example out of us to others who are walking in disobedience, or to make some unforseen point to us?  Do we dare to think God unkind or uncaring, as that same someone said to me recently?  No, I think not.  So, why then does God seem to remove the hedge from around us, and allow bad things to happen to good people? Allow us to even have to visit, those dark and lonley places?

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