Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. Two really spectacular guests.

And I think I ended with this point, but I want to be like these men always. And I want to be

armed with these truths so that when I go through suffering, I can handle it like these two guys.

And I think God would want me to.

Incredible wisdom. You can hear it in their in their voices with these two segments on

why God lets bad things happen.

Welcome back to politics by faith. Why God Let's Bad Things Happen.

Tom Askell, a friend of the show, is pastor, Grace Baptist Church, president of Founders Ministries.

Most relevant here is the author of the book Suffering with Joy, Letters on Tragedy, Loss, and Hope. Tom, thank you for being here.

Well, Mike, thank you for having me on. I'm always glad to talk with you. One of the first people we thought of,

when I first heard what happened in Texas, I didn't want to hear the story.

I couldn't even take.

I saw like pictures of little girls and I was like, boom, I'm out. I can't even, I don't want to deal with this story. I don't want to confront it at all. It's too sad. It's too awful. It's too horrible. But we need to be people who confront difficult things. Right. First, tell me your story. tell me about the book

and then we can bring it back

and apply it to everyone else

who suffers Right. First, tell me your story. Tell me about the book and then we can bring it back and apply it to everyone else who

suffers loss and death and heartache.

Right.

Well, this book, Suffering with Joy, is a collection of letters that I wrote during my sister's

death that was progressive because of glioblastoma, brain cancer over the course

of a year. And these were just ways I was trying to help her and the rest of our family to think

about tragedy and sorrow and death. And so it's meditations on different Bible passages and

...