卡蘿不能理解為何不幸的事會接踵而至。工作的問題已經讓她身心俱疲，女兒還在學校摔傷了腳，而她自己也受到了嚴重感染。卡蘿不禁心想：我到底做了什麼，怎麼會碰到這些事呢？她所能做的只有懇求上帝賜給她力量。

聖經人物約伯也不明白為何會禍不單行，他的痛苦和失去的，遠勝過卡蘿所遭遇的一切。聖經沒有指明約伯是否知道天上正為他的靈魂爭戰。撒但要試探約伯的信心，宣稱約伯只要失去一切，就會離棄上帝（約伯記1章6-12節）。當禍事接踵而來，約伯的朋友堅稱他是因犯罪而受罰。當然這不是約伯受苦的原因，但約伯肯定想知道：為什麼是我？他不知道的是，上帝已允許這一切災禍發生。

約伯的故事給我們上了關於受苦與信心的一課。我們可能會試圖探究苦難背後的原因，但或許苦難的背後有一個更大的計劃，是我們窮其一生都無法理解的。

就像約伯一樣，我們可以堅守所知道的：上帝掌管一切。這不是一件容易的事，但約伯在苦難中持續仰望上帝，他信靠上帝的主權，說：「賞賜的是耶和華，收取的也是耶和華。耶和華的名是應當稱頌的」（21節）。不論發生何事，祈盼你我都能持續信靠上帝，即使我們什麼都不明白。

Carol couldn’t understand why it was happening all at once. As if work wasn’t bad enough, her daughter fractured her foot in school, and she herself came down with a severe infection. What did I do to deserve this? Carol wondered. All she could do was ask God for strength.

Job didn’t know why calamity had hit him so hard either—pain and loss far greater than what Carol experienced. There’s no indication he was aware of the cosmic battle for his soul. Satan wanted to test Job’s faith, claiming he’d turn from God if he lost everything (Job 1:6-12). When disaster struck, Job’s friends insisted he was being punished for his sins. That wasn’t why, but he must have wondered, Why me? What he didn’t know was that God had allowed it to happen.

Job’s story offers a powerful lesson about suffering and about faith. We may try to discover the reason behind our pain, but perhaps there’s a bigger story behind the scenes that we won’t understand in our lifetime.

Like Job, we can hold on to what we do know: God is in full control. It’s not an easy thing to say, but in the midst of his pain, Job kept looking to God and trusting in His sovereignty: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (v. 21). May we too keep trusting in God no matter what happens—and even when we don’t understand.