Dr Paul Allen

The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind by El Greco, c. 1570 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) As Jesus and His disciples passed through Jerusalem , they came upon a man who had been blind from birth. This surfaced a question in the minds of the disciples that they must have been wrestling with for some time. They asked, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?—John 9:2 Their dilemma was based upon a wrong assumption they had been taught all their lives, namely, that illness is a sign of God ’s judgment. There was no question in their minds that someone had sinned. But who? The disciples were trying from their limited perspective to answer a question we often find ourselves asking. It is the why question. Why did this happen? Why did my son run away? Why did my father contract cancer? Why did our house burn? Why did I lose my job? Why was I sued? The questions are endless. Each of us has a specific list. Sometimes there is so much emotion involved we dare not

Gwyneth Paltrow at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I'm mindful that Paltrow and her husband Chris Martin are, in fact, real people who are in distress and working hard to be loving parents. I am also certain that whether you're a millionaire actress married to a rock star or my neighbor down the block in the Chicago suburbs , I can't begin to know what's going on inside your marriage . So what follows isn't about trashing "gp," as she refers to herself on her website, but about exploring what I think her now-infamous "conscious uncoupling" message gets wrong about marriage. (By referring to her as "gp," I'm acknowledging that her statements are hewn with the help of publicists and probably represent the bone she felt obligated to toss at a barking, celebrity-crazed culture. I expect that what the real woman – Gwyneth Paltrow – is experiencing right now is likely very different.) Here a