I certainly can identify with this essay. As a hospital chaplain I quickly learned that pain and suffering are enriching life in a strange and paradoxical way. No pain - no life. And absolutely not the same as masochism. This summer I experienced what I had learned before, when my wife  of almost 35 years died "out of the blue" from one moment to the next aged 55. While some people expected I ought to feel anger in all my excruciating pain, it's just deep, intense gratitude that remains. Perhaps I wouldn't have put it that way (in fact, it might have sounded phoney if I did ... because it remains such a mystery and doesn't make sense - while we always want to be so rational), but - yes - God is good. All the time.