Do you have a worldview that can explain suffering and death? Asking that question is one way I can determine a soldier’s well-being. They often come to my office because they have no way to adequately process suffering in the past or present.

The most important thing to ask about one’s religious claims is whether or not they’re true. But this truth is also manifested in whether or not they work. Can your religious claims lend true meaning and hope to the sufferer? Do they begin to address the familiar question, “How can a good God allow people to suffer?”

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the Rock on whom we can stand. No other religion or worldview can explain suffering, but we have a story that does, a story that begins and ends in a garden and crosses through a history of wilderness in between. It’s a story of hope. Without it we have nothing upon which to support the weight of our life. Jesus is our Rock—our secure foundation—because He suffered for us. He died for our sins; He’ll come back for our tears.