" Mike Mason writes about surrender and suffering in The Gospel According to Job, In retrospect I can see that a large part of my anguish was rooted in the fact that there really was nothing I could do to control what was happening to me. I was absolutely helpless, and it is this, perhaps, that is the soul of suffering, this terrifying impotence. We Christians do not like to think about being absolutely helpless in the hands of our God. With all our faith and with all His grace, we still prefer to maintain some semblance of control over our lives. When difficulties arise, we like to think that there are certain steps we can take, or attitudes we can adopt, to alleviate our anguish and be happy. There are no easy answers to suffering - there is no such thing as getting a grip on oneself or pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. The only bootstrap in the Christian life is the cross (Mason 1994, x-xi). "