The late Baptist minister and preacher, Dr Charles Stanley, would often note that we should try to see all the trials that come our way as being 'sent by God.' He did not mean that God  actually sends every bad circumstance our way, but that (as Christians believe) the Lord has the capacity to allow or not allow such trials to come. In a sense, it amounts to His giving tacit authority to everything that can afflict us. Why is this a good thing?

Scripture tells us that affliction, suffering and all the variants thereof come to us to make us better people. Even non-believers know that affliction can  sharpen us, making us wiser, kinder people, more able to live our lives, increasing both our capacity and agency. In the Christian faith, to see every trial as being sent by God allows us to better respond to it, because we believe it is sent by God.

This can work on many levels, from the most mundane ( a traffic jam, stuck in a line, being verbally abused) to major events such as ill health or financial loss. If we think that the Lord is behind it, then it can only, ultimately, be for our good, no matter how dark the situation seems. Though we cannot see it, yet there is a plan and a will that guides us towards a greater, joyful outcome somewhere down the track.

This will sound crazy to people who don't believe. I understand. It is an issue of faith, no doubt. But I am reliably told that it works and I aspire to it every day, hard as it is. Proverbs 3:5 sums up the right way of thinking about stuff that perplexes or challenges us.

'Trust in the Lord will all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;'

I like to think of my 'own understanding' as being comparable to holding up a sheet of black paper in front of my face, with a single pin hole to look through. That is my view of all the things that are much larger than myself, heedless of space/time or my own limited logic.