“I have an impersonal trainer. We meet at the gym, we don’t talk, he works out alone, and I go home.” ~ George Carlin
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GOD EXISTS!

What a great analogy of God for those who don’t know. (by Robin Williams, no less!)

This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering that I have seen. It's an explanation other people will understand: A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."

"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist."

"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"

"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me."

"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

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From the lyrics of a new song by “Casting Crowns” in the album, The Altar and The Door, the song entitled “East to West,” with reference to Psalm based on Psalm 103:12 ~ “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

I have always heard others teach this with reference to the infinity of space. The lyrics of this song ask, “Jesus can You show me just how far the east is from the west?” The response is: “From one scarred hand to the other!” ~ That, Beloved is “Intimacy!”