Discouraged by Hardship
Flying over the Pacific, I winced to overhear the conversation unfolding behind me. A young lady was explaining, “I did believe in God. But after getting sick and almost dying […]
Tag Archives: suffering
Why did God allow that?
Why did God allow this evil act? I don’t know. But if God suffers with us to forge a perfect paradise out of this mess, offering his life to save undeserving people, I guess it is ok not to know.
Where in the World is God?
It was a morning soaked in pain. Three stories, three conversations, three lives turned upside down and inside out. A death, a dying, and a falling apart. And through it […]
Why Does God Allow So Much Evil in the World?
I don’t know. That’s the bottom line, so let’s just face it now. I don’t know. And, so far as my research has taken me, nobody else does, either. But […]
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is a well-known song since the 1944 romantic musical film “Meet Me in St. Louis”. This is how the song begins (I considered adding […]
Shaped by the Future
A prisoner like Viktor Frankl learned quickly the signs that someone had given up. The suffering and humiliation ministered at World War II concentration camps took hold of a person’s […]
The Chaos Waiting Around the Corner
I have a confession to make: I am deeply afraid of the chaos that lingers at our doorstep, the chaos that rips into our mundane lives, forever marking a particular […]
Nanna’s Rainbows in the Tears
There is no guarantee how suffering will shape a soul. As C.S. Lewis, the imaginative author of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, once noted, I am not convinced […]
We Tend Our Gardens
“Why do bad things happen to good people?’” “If God is good, why does suffering exist?” “What does it mean?” These are questions that have been around as long as […]
Citizens of a Wild Kingdom
Our church recently spent a month with Job. The book of Job is, of course, famous for its treatment of the problem of evil and God’s justice in the face […]
Wondering Fair 