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I met Joni as well, and I admire her a great deal. I agree with you that God allows affliction for many different reasons but, in all of them, it is Him that is glorified. I have expressed my thoughts on this before because I know that many on the RF threads suffer various disabilities and we pray for each other. I feel that if God just healed everyone that needed it - regardless of where they were in their walk with Christ - and he just gave everybody that asked wealth and every dream of their hearts, then not only would EVERYBODY in the world suddenly say they were believers but God would be little more than a super-Santa or fairy godmother.

The $64,000 question has always been, "If God is good and love, then why does he let bad things happen to good people?". Many have attempted to answer that question, but without faith in Him - trusting that he IS good - those answers fall on deaf ears. The world wants a super-Santa and fairy godmother, but that is not how the true God operates. It is when we endure suffering and hardship and survive by God's grace regardless of the trials, that He gets all the glory. People on the outside look at the life of Joni and others and see the power of God that through the trial there is joy, in spite of the trial, and they (or some) realize that only a real, loving God can bring that about. THAT is what draws people to him, not the goodies, but the deep and enduring confidence that our Creator is here, with us, working all things together for our good, because he IS good and merciful, ever faithful, trustworthy, and abounding in grace and love. Knowing that, we have the strength to get through whatever he allows.