Hi,

I think that at least some of the pain and suffering that we experience as humans can be tied to choices that have been made in the past, whether we ourselves made the choices in question or whether someone else made the choices. My belief is that God gave us the capacity to make choices while also giving us some instructions on how to make choices that are the most beneficial both for ourselves and for others. Probably every human who's ever had the capacity to understand right from wrong and make choices has at some point made the wrong choices -- choices that both go against what we've been instructed to do and have also hurt somebody in some way. And I think that that's one reason why pain and suffering exist in this world.

But I think that in addition to instructing us on how to make the kinds of choices that would end up being of the greatest benefit for us and for those around us, God has also given us the message that the pain and suffering that we experience in part as a result of choices that we've made and that others have made is something that can be overcome. That's not to say that we're not going to still feel hurt over things that have happened in the past and that some choices that we and others have made in the past aren't going to still have consequences into the future. And probably, we can't expect that we won't ever make the wrong choices ever again as we move into the future. But we do have the capacity to do good things and to make the kinds of choices that will make our lives and the lives of those around us better. The good things that we do for ourselves and for others do not necessarily need to be large, but I believe that God has put us here so that we can do good things and so we can do our part -- even if it's just a small part -- to transform the pain and suffering that all of us experience into something that's better both for those of us who are here now and for those of us who will be here on this planet in the years to come. We all make mistakes, but I also think that all of us have the capacity to do good things and will continue to have the capacity to do good things for the rest of the time that we spend alive. I think that that's why we're here. I personally think that it's God that put us here to do good things, but even if you think we're here just by chance and that God has nothing to do with it, I think that the reason why we're here is so that we can do things that make our lives and the lives of others (and that includes your Beagles and other non-human life on this planet, not just humans) better.