My lesson from the book — which was Martha's lesson — is that you have to reach the point where you're willing to trust in Jesus alone and place all your trust in Him. And that means we have to come to that place of total helplessness and hopelessness — that there's no medication, there's no counselor, there's no financial backer, there's no way out. It's impossible except for Jesus and we put all our faith in Him alone. I think that's one reason that for people in third world countries, God just seems to be so big to them. He does so many incredible things because He's all they have, and its easy for them in a sense to place their faith in Him alone, because He's all they have and He does incredible things for them. Here where we have so much, it's difficult for us to place our faith in God alone. I think we fall short of experiencing the bigness of it of what He can do. I just have to wait on Him to come through, to wait and see the glory. I think that chapter eleven is enormously encouraging because it gives us a hope of the resurrection. Maybe in this life we won't see the glory but we're going to see it in the life to come and its going to make sense then.

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Preaching: Because we put so much emphasis on avoiding pain, do you think we sometimes miss what God's trying to teach us through pain?

Lotz: I totally do. I think that's an American thing. In fact, I feel like in the rest of the world it's not a question of if you suffer, it's a matter of when and how bad it's going to be. In America, we are surprised by our suffering. So we don't deserve it and we have all types of resources to get out of it and to run away from it and escape it. Sometimes as believers we get offended with God — and maybe embittered towards other people — when our suffering is not alleviated.

There's one little phrase that struck me in John chapter eleven when Jesus said of Lazarus — He said that Lazarus was sleeping and that He was going to wake him up, and the disciples said we don't need to go; if he is sleeping he is going to wake up, he's going to be fine. Then Jesus spoke very plainly and said that he had died, and He makes the most interesting statement. He said, "and I'm glad that I wasn't there so you can see the glory of God." And I thought, "Wait a minute. Jesus is saying He was glad He wasn't there to help Lazarus! He was glad that He didn't heal Lazarus; He was glad that He didn't answer Mary and Martha's prayer when they prayed it." And what that led me to conclude was that from God's perspective, there's a lot more to life then being healthy, and wealthy, and happy, and prosperous, and problem free, and comfortable, and having our problems solved and our prayers answered when we want them solved. There's something more out there, and He was glad.

Peter said you also rejoice that for a little while you've suffered all sorts of trials and temptations but these have been so that your faith will be refined, so it will be like gold that doesn't perish when Jesus is revealed in your own life. The point is that suffering gives us the opportunity to not only know God in a deep way but display His character in and through our lives to other people in such a way that they want to know Him. It becomes like a platform.