Any way we look at it, it's tragic.  Otto Warmbier didn't need to die at the tender age of 22.  Yes, he probably should not have taken the propaganda poster from the hall of the hotel in which he stayed in Pyongyang, but he surely did not deserve a fifteen year sentence for doing so.  And he definitely did not deserve to come back to the U.S. in a coma and die several days later.  I feel for him, I feel for his parents.  And I'm overwhelmed by the geopolitical tensions which have contributed to this miasma of horror and pain.
     It's difficult to know what goes on inside of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's head, it's difficult to know why Warmbier's captors apparently chose to beat him on the head until he was senseless.  It's so unspeakably hard to grasp this level of hate, this scale of malice.  The prospect is terrifying.
     Yet it exists.  It's easy to say that this is a fallen world bent by sin.  But this doesn't salve the pain of those whose lives are shattered by this fallen world's effects. Suffering still happens.  I do not wish to say that God has a plan--that's insulting to those Warmbier left behind--but I do want to note that God's light and truth continue, despite these highly diabolical circumstances, to reign.  We live in a world of purpose, a world in which somehow, some way, faith, as John puts it, "is the victory."
     Beyond this, I can say little.  Nor should I.  My tears and prayers go to the Warmbier family.  I'm so sorry, so very sorry for your loss.  All the best.