Your response is well-thought-out. I have a very difficult time believing that God sits back and permits bad things to happen because this is a sinful world. I know the verse: "In the world you will have tribulation, but fear not because I have overcome the world." and "All who will love godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." and "A servant is not above his master, if they persecuted me they will persecute you."
I am a living example of these verses - yet I hold to: "Therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace and help in time of need." (My favorite verse) But I go to the throne again and again and again - yet my prayers don't avail. Since I was damaged in a medical procedure, my husband has turned from God. We have been put under unbearable pressure, as he goes to work and comes home half-days to care for me. He just left to ride his motorcycle - which I've asked him not to do because someone we know was just killed on one. He still goes. I have bone-chilling fears. If anything happened to him I'd be alone and unable to care for myself. My children don't care all that much - they're busy. I've heard from others that this entire generation is a mess. I think we must have made mistakes raising them. They're all decent people, but don't reach out to me to help.
My husband is weary caring for me. I will never go into a nursing home - those places are despicable. My mother-in-law was in one and it reeked of urine. I would rather be dead. I watched them not medicate her and had to watch her gasp for every breath. I got the nurse and told them to medicate her. She smiled as if I'd asked for a cup of tea - and told me the medication would be in that night. I don't think God approves of that. Some Christians don't believe in Right-to-die laws, but I'm a firm believer in them. I am appalled that Focus on the Family declares the laws ungodly, as if they are God's spokesperson. I had to sit and hold my mother as she turned progressively darker from cancer, and died a horrible death.
We attended a church I hated - but went because my husband liked the people who ran it. I'd heard bad things about the family. They were ungodly realtors who rented my son and his friends a home that turned out to be uninspected. My son attempted to open a window that had been painted shut, and his hand went through the glass, severing a tendon in his wrist. The realtor insisted he would pay everything and to not sue. I erroneously believed the verse "do not take another believer before the ungodly" - and my husband, completely hoodwinked by them, refused to go with me or insist our son see a lawyer.
As soon as the 2-year statute-of-limitation was up, the realtor dropped every bit of help for medical care - and would not pay a cent for care for my son's wrist. He had no insurance. I got a lawyer and we attempted to file suit, but I learned just how corrupt some courts are. The "Christian" realtor hired a lawyer who went after my throat because I took over the legal case. The ugliest things ensued. I refused to back down and fought back, but we lost. Now I can't stand to look at my son's wrist. I have such a difficult time with my husband for believing those ungodly 'Christians' over me. I did eventually see God's judgement on them. They were publicly humiliated in the "Kiddie Kollege" scam and lost their business. But it is galling that they still continue to hoodwink people in their busy "church" which some believe is a front for making money.
There are multiple things such as the above. I've known good Christians as well. I have been praying over and over for my daughter to meet a godly man. She is a highly beautiful woman, intelligent, educated - yet is divorced with no family. It hasn't happened. Every day I wake I am burdened by her being alone. She's dated but said all the good men are taken. Then, I see evil people married and reproducing - populating this world with evil children who follow their evil parents. It boggles my mind.
The other churches we've attended have been okay - but most are fake. Those who are the "popular" people in church get attention and adulation. I've never sought that - it disgusts me. I try to always be real.. I've watched certain people in the church praised by the pastor to stroke their ego, asked to put money into a collection "so children in the church can attend Christian school" yet we were never offered money to help pay for our children to attend. We were asked to contribute to a bible teacher's "retirement gift" yet my husband and I have struggled with my medical bills, and not once were we offered a dime. When I finally did make it to church one Sunday, a woman spoke publicly in church and thanked everyone for the cards they sent when she had a cyst in her neck removed. Yet I have had serious surgery and did not receive one card. Churches are no different from the world. They remind me of the junior high popularity contests. It reminds me of God's judgement on the churches in Revelations. I never delved into a study of Revelations, so I may interpret them inaccurately.
So I have been on a precipice of facing God, praying for Him to heal me or take me. I've grown weary of the world, the problems, the church -that is more like the world than the church based on truth. I am trying to see what God is doing. I've been forced into living a "virtual life" now and am trying to see what God wants from me. I like to look at each situation as happening for a reason - not "because we live in a sinful world." But the days and hours and moments are long, the struggles hard.