Most people understand that suffering is part of the human condition. But even so, we're often

surprised and even shocked when the plot of our life takes an unexpected turn, and we're forced

to deal with an unsavory twist

we never saw coming.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall points

to a young, adopted woman who was rescued by the king.

Her story was unfolding like a fairy tale, until now.

Chuck begins by reading the Bible passage for us. In his continuing study on

the life of Esther, he titled today's message, An Evil Interlude.

If you were to look up the word life in heaven's thesaurus, one of the first synonyms you

would find would be pain. That's right, pain. You see, life is filled with sharp corners

and hard floors and many falls.

Try as we might to cushion ourselves from the bumps and brace ourselves for the spills.

Pain is inevitable and inescapable.

It just comes with the territory,

along with troubles and hardships,

and I might add, enemies who seek to do us harm.

All of this brings us to Esther,

an unspoiled flower in the king of Persia's garden.

Lurking in the dark, however, are enemies of the king and of Esther. We pick up the story where two of the king's own men are plotting from the shadowy recesses of their evil hearts.

I want you to listen closely today as I read their story,

and I'll be reading from chapter 2, verse 21, through parts of chapter 3 in the book of Esther.

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