There may be a time and a place to probe deeper into whether they are seeing the situation clearly. But surely that should not be the first instinct when we are faced with a suffering believer. When a child comes crying to his mother with a skinned knee, the mother’s first step is not to interrogate the child about whether he was running too fast on the playground. After all, the suffering itself is real, regardless of the cause, and deserves tenderness and care.
