As I drove across the North Dakota plains Thanksgiving morning and saw this isolated farmstead out in the middle of the prairie, I thought, “Life is hard.” Just think how hard it would have been when that house was built to actually live out there, in many ways in isolation. Acts 14:22b says, “They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that they must enter into the Kingdom of God through many tribulations” (NLT). James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (NASB). Many of my friends are experiencing tough times right now. Life is hard. As Christians, we hang on to the knowledge that God is in control and that nothing enters our lives apart from His permissive will. He is the great Deliverer, sometimes “now” but many times “not yet.” The Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all” (NASB).