Before the tragic events in Japan unfolded this past week (a massive earthquake off their coast and the subsequent tsunamis that have taken at least 10,000 lives around the world), I had chosen as a model for the study of Our Troubled World in Romans 8, the multiple tragedies and grief in the life of one Marguerite Frances Claverie, of New Orleans Louisiana. The recent events in Japan (and around the world) and Marguerites life, are examples of the struggles Paul had in mind when he was writing Romans 8:18-31.