CYOA - Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:

I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter; 
power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter. 
2 And I declared that the dead, who had already died, 
are happier than the living, who are still alive. 
3 But better than both is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 describes my thoughts about life in Africa exactly. Death is better than life with evil, while the unborn have it best. I have read no verse in the Bible (since my return) that rings truer than this “I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter; 
power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter.” (emphasis mine) What does this mean? Does it mean that the oppressed did not know God and therefore could not know his comfort? Must you know God to experience his comfort? Does God show his comfort to non-believers? What is God’s comfort? What does it look like? Does it indeed look the comfort a mother shows her child as suggested in Is. 66:13 and Ps. 103:13? Does God dry your tears and bandage your wounds? Does he anticipate your every need and take care of it? If so, I have not experienced it, nor has the author of Ecclesiastes. If God is a comforter but the oppressed do not have him and we do not experience it what good is our belief? Why continue to beg for comfort? How can we continue to hold our hands open to the possibility of comfort when it causes so much disappointment and un-fulfillment?

I feel like a child with gapping wounds on my knees and face after taking a fall while running down a steep paved hill. I want a hug, band aids, and someone to put patches on my pants and to wipe the tears from my eyes. Often when I tell people that I am angry with God because I did not feel his love or comfort in Africa they ask me to clarify my definition of the terms and encourage me to think about God’s definition versus my definition. They ask me about my expectations and timeline; what level of comfort I expected and how quickly I expected to get it. My response is, how long does a child wait for someone to bandage their bloody knees? How long do we wait for God’s comfort? Is God’s comfort part of the already not yet state of the kingdom? When will comfort arrive? If a child is not comforted when they have experienced pain, will they live? Yes, but how will their thinking and beliefs be affected? Will their development be damaged? How long do we wait for God’s comfort? How damaged must we become before he responds? How do we explain the gap between the promises of Is. 66:13; Ps. 103:13 and the reality of Ecc. 4:1?