Where is God When it Hurts?: Beyond Suffering - Softcover

Pain and suffering are all too common in our world, both on a wider scale with war and famine, for example, and on a very personal level. How can a loving God allow such suffering? To ask such a question is "honest, reasonable even" (Joni Eareckson Tada), and yet a valid answer is frequently not given. As Yancey himself says: "many suffering people want to love God, but cannot see past their tears. They feel hurt and betrayed. Sadly, the Church often responds with more confusion than comfort." Yancey's achievement is a compassionate treatment of one of life's deepest mysteries, approaching the problem, not via the philosophical or theoretical route, but realising that the very nature of suffering is one of relationship: relationships between people, and our relationship with God. He attempts to lead the reader to an understanding of exactly where God is when it hurts. Pain and suffering are all too common in our world, both on a wider scale with war and famine, for example, and on a very personal level. How can a loving God allow such suffering?

If there is a loving God, then why is it that ... ? You've heard that question, perhaps asked it yourself. No matter how you complete it, at its root lies the issue of pain. Does God order our suffering? Does he decree an abusive childhood, orchestrate a jet crash, steer a tornado through a community? Or did he simply wind up the world's mainspring and now is watching from a distance? In this Gold Medallion Award--winning book, Philip Yancey reveals a God who is neither capricious nor unconcerned. Using examples from the Bible and from his own experiences, Yancey looks at pain---physical, emotional, and spiritual---and helps us understand why we suffer. Where Is God When It Hurts? will speak to those for whom life sometimes just doesn't make sense. And it will help equip anyone who wants to reach out to someone in pain but just doesn't know what to say.