Church can be a place where people pretend that everything is fine.  We can imagine it as a place where we need to hide the hardships and struggles of life.  We look around and think that everyone else has a relatively smooth life and that it is easy for them to worship Jesus.  But if we get past the assumptions and shallow way of thinking about others, we realize that life is probably hard for all of us. And those struggles that each of us face can bring up deep questions about God and about hope.  We’re beginning a study in the book of Exodus today, and we’re going to see how God meets us in the hard places. As the book opens, God’s people are facing undeserved suffering.  Since many of us face the same situation, let’s see what we can learn from the experience of the children of Israel.