When you give a title to a book like The Problem of Pain, you may scare away readers. But if the author is C. S. Lewis, more will be attracted to it than repulsed. And despite the “downer” title, it’s really quite an excellent perspective on dealing with the difficulties we face in life. Lewis also offered this encouragement in the book:
Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular dwelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions.
For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you—you, the individual reader. . . . Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him, and not another’s. All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His good way, to utter satisfaction. . . .
Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it.
The pain we experience in this short stay on earth is more than worth it in the end.