The German poet Ranier Maria Rilke wrote in his Letters to a Young Poet, “Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” In our spiritual lives, we often carry unanswered doubts and questions. My own pilgrimage was motivated by various questions: Why does God seem distant? Why does the church seem dysfunctional? And -- the question that burdened me more than any other -- Why does God allow people to suffer?