O God, help us to realize that we are but dust and deserve absolutely nothing from You! Grant us according to Your mercy, grace, and lovingkindness as You will.

I think Hays offers a stinging critique of Olsen’s argument. As I often like to say regarding questions of theodicy, we were made for God’s glory, not the other way around. Much of the hand-wringing over the ‘problem of evil’ comes from a worldview that sees humanity as the pinnacle and purpose of creation; i.e., a very humanistic point of view. This POV completely ignores that God is sovereign and that we are sinful. Each and every sin we commit is an act of cosmic treason against a holy God and punishable by death. The fact that we’re still breathing is a testament to God’s infinite grace! We’re all going to die in one manner or another; whether it’s quietly through old age or brutally through great violence, the end result is the same — we die. As Jesus himself said, “Unless you repent, you too will likewise perish” (Luke 13). That may be cold and it may be heartless, but it’s the truth; and our displeasure with the truth (yours, mine or Brian’s, the author of the previous comment) in no way alters its truthfulness.

Now this is the evangelical faith I remember, if you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Dying child, get over it, move on from your emotionalistic tripe, God does not want to hear it, God wants the apologetic, move on, deal with it, get over it. In the real world people do not deal with loss or pain like this, neither does God, but He needs to pony up and become a good evangelical to. Truly Mr Hays the real world does not work like this, the adult world does not work like this. We are an old earth, that struggles with much. Basically Grow up.