"Pain is God's megaphone." C.S. Lewis

I am currently reading The Purpose Driven Life. You read a chapter everyday for forty days. Yesterday's chapter was particularly fitting for me now. It described why pain occurs in your life. The basic premise was that God sometimes allows pain your life to get your attention, and to bring you back to Him. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this concept. I mean did God really feel like the only way to get my attention was infertility?! This is the one thing that I have feared and agonized over for years. Does God pick something that you desperately fear, but knows you can survive to pull you back to Him, or is it more random? Is every horrible event: death, disease, abuse, rape, kidnapping, fire, or home invasion designed to individually grab that person's attention or the attention of an entire family? How many chances do you get before drastic measures are taken? What if this didn't make me renew my faith; would something worse happen? On the other hand isn't it safer that God is in control of the situation. Does this explanation of pain allow the human mind to cope with devastating news since there is a purpose behind it? Does 'pain with a purpose' indicate how much God loves us, and really wants to give us every opportunity grow with Him? Also, I wonder if there was no pain, no suffering would we appreciate the happiness we experience. Will I love my children more because of the pain I will have to go through to get there? I'm not really sure what the different schools of thought are regarding God 'allowing' bad things to happen to good people. I know some people rail against God demanding answers, but sometimes I don't think God gives answers...at least not in ways that we expect. Is this grounds for dismissing God? I think this is the easy way out..."Well, God allowed this so He must be bad, or out to punish me." As you grow and mature spiritually, I think God asks you truly examine your life and what/whom you are living for. This is hard, but enduring pain without God is even harder.