Is God a Mean, Selfish, Bully?

I’m wrestling with a difficult truth. Well, maybe just chewing on it a bit. Still wrapping my head around it. I was listening to a Max Lucado book, Never Give Up . He was telling the story of a young teen who was roughhousing around with his brother. In their headlocks and arm wrestling, one kicked the other in the stomach—in the gut as he said. Such a kick yielded acute, severe pain. The pain led them to the emergency room which uncovered a tumor. Emergency surgery removed the cancerous mass which, the surgeon said, had only been growing for a few days at most. This aggressive invasion of the body could have resulted in a more serious outcome. So, Max said, God saved the boy with a kick in the gut. Miracle? Sure. I guess. But why would God use such a method? The book is talking about going through hard things and not letting discouragement or pain get the better of you and cause you to “curse God an...