Is God explanation for pain?  Or he is simply solace?  After interviewing many evangelical Christians, sociologist T. H. Luhrman (who, by her own account, is not a Christian) concludes that, by and large, the latter is more true.  In time of tragedy and pain, most evangelicals, or at least the ones she interviewed, do not necessarily look to God to explain why such tragedy has happened but rather to affirm their conviction that he is with them as they endure it.  God is their comfort, their balm, their hope.  He is that on which they lean for safe journey through the pain.
     Luhrman's findings seem logical:  in the end, humans are creatures not so much of the mind as of the heart.  On the other hand, I suggest that although God can indeed provide comfort in pain, the reason that he can be experienced as such is that, in the very big picture, he is also its explanation.  He is solace precisely because he is explanation, that dimension of mental assent that undergirds the decisions and choices of the heart.  Indeed, if all God is, is solace, he is no more than an emotional crutch, a projection of a distraught heart.
     Of course, as every evangelical Christian (and perhaps countless other people as well) knows, God may not make his explanation known, not today, not tomorrow, maybe never, at least in this life.  That's one of the continuing frustrations of finitude.  But if we believe in an ordered universe--which I wager that most of us do--we are also saying that, though we might not like to admit it, all things will ultimately make sense.
       Why otherwise bother with God?