Book Review of "Where is God when it hurts".

Book title: Where is God when it hurts Author: Philip Yancey Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan Printed: 1977; 1990 Philip Yancey is an author and editor-at-large for Christianity Today. We ought to thank God for inventing pain. Pain is unpleasant, enough so to force us to withdraw our fingers from a stove. Yet that very quality saves us from destruction. A tragic example of someone not heeding the warning of pain occurred in a basketball game in which a star player, Bob Gross, wanted to play despite a badly injured ankle. The doctor injected Marcaine, a strong painkiller into his foot. Gross started the game and later he heard a snap sound. But he continued the play and then crumpled to the floor. By overriding pain’s warning system , the doctor caused permanent damage to Gross’s foot and ended his basketball career. The learned doctor’s good intention backfired.

A period of sharp suffering is also an occasion of spiritual growth. Trials and suffering can purge sin and develop character. Poverty teaches us to depend on God and be cleansed of greed. Failure and public disgrace can help cure worldly ambition. Pain could be transformed even redeemed.

Suffering has some moral value in exposing our needful state as mortal creatures on a groaning planet. God often speaks to humans through the megaphone of pain. Faith in God offers no insurance against tragedy.

Gen 38:7 portrays God as the direct cause of Er’s suffering. He was wicked and the Lord put him to death. Lk 13:10-16 says Satan was the direct cause of the woman’s infirmity. Job 2:4-7 says Job suffered when Satan inflicted the pain but only after obtaining God’s permission.

Certain actions may lead to painful consequences. A driver who drives at breakneck speed is taking an unnecessary risk. A person who smokes and drinks heavily exposes his body to certain health risks. Utah , home of health-conscious Mormons, has one of the lowest rates of heart diseases while its neighbour Nevada, home of loose living, has one of the highest.

Miracles of healing always attract huge crowds but even so Jesus refused to make them the centerpiece of his ministry. On certain occasions Jesus deliberately elected not to intervene in the natural order of things, for example, by not calling on angels to deliver him from his most painful hour.

In John chapter 9, the disciples asked Jesus whether the blind man was born blind because of his own sin or that of his parents. Jesus reply was : Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Suffering offers an opportunity for us to display God’s work.

Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries. Suffering teaches patience. To suffering people, the gospel sounds like good news and it offers hope and comfort.

The record of Jesus’ life on earth should forever answer the question, How does God feel about our pain? In reply, God did not give us words or theories on the problem of pain. He gave us himself. Paul speaks of sharing in Christ’s sufferings. Suffering can gain meaning if we consider it as part of the cross we take on in following Jesus.

C S Lewis felt devastated after the death of his wife. Lewis said that at the moment of his most profound need, God, who had always been available to him, suddenly seemed absent. Lewis felt fear, and abandonment and in the end it was the community of other Christians who helped to restore him.

This book should offer warm comfort to those who have lost a loved one, who are undergoing pain and suffering as a result of a terminal illness and those who feel that there is no hope left for them.