Yancey where is god

She eventually started Joni and Friends , a disability ministry that now has international impact. She usually has more questions than answers but is always happiest in the water, where she's learning what it means to "be still". Faith Where is God when it hurts? How has your perspective of suffering changed since then? The concept of suffering that means most to me is the concept of redeemed pain. About the author. Related Articles. Faith A pastor and his wife celebrate their miracle child amid the grief of five miscarriages.

News The shaking of Afghanistan and Myanmar: Our call to prayer and action. All Rights Reserved. Robertson McQuilkin Her body was in decline, her beauty being replaced by thinning hair, wrinkles and skin discoloration. She could no longer do the things she once could, and she felt herself to be a burden on others.

Why must I hurt so? But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. It makes us more eager to leave behind the temporary, deteriorating part of us and be truly homesick for our eternal home. If we stayed young and strong and beautiful, we might never want to leave! We are here to be changed, to be made more like God in order to prepare us for a lifetime with him.

And that process may be served by the mysterious pattern of all creation: pleasure sometimes emerges against a background of pain, evil may be transformed into good, and suffering may produce something of value.

When I stub my toe or twist an ankle, pain loudly announces to my brain that something is wrong. Similarly, the existence of suffering on this earth is, I believe, a scream to all of us that something is wrong. It halts us in our tracks and forces us to consider other values. Nor does it offer insurance against feelings of doubt and betrayal. If anything, being a Christian complicates the issue. If you believe in a world of pure chance, what difference does it make whether a bus from Yuba City or one from Salina crashes?

But if you believe in a world ruled by a powerful God who loves you tenderly, then it makes an awful difference. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him…if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels — welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.

You may as well turn away. Yancey provides a helpful framework to understand pain and its purpose. Part of the reason I offer this opinion is based on the current developments during the Covid pandemic. It is only in suffering and isolation that people tend to look at the larger issues of life and death or philosophy and theology—the big questions.

Humans rarely question God in the midst of pleasure, so it is important to give thought and care when times provides an opportunity for contemplation. As Yancey explored the issue of pain, he wanted to look at more than the philosophical question but start with the eyes of the sufferers. With this in mind, his book focuses on three parts: 1 the biological nature of pain; 2 the planet as a whole and how suffering fits in the bigger picture; and 3 how we should respond to people in pain.

Yancey notes that symptoms are different from the illness. Symptoms prompt reflection and questioning. Symptoms lead us to respond to the illness. Consider the pain sensors in skin—the first defense of the body from pressure, heat, cold, and disease. Years ago, Yanchey met with Dr. Paul Brand, the pioneering physician who worked with those suffering nerve damage.

Brand developed manmade systems that used sound and lights to signal that people were damaging their hands. The only warning system that worked was pain—an electronic pulse—that was out of reach from being shut off with an override. Humans need to listen to their pain and not shut off the warning system. As Dr. We live in a world that allows pain relief as a normal course of living: Tylenol to relieve headaches, allergy medicine to stop running noses, and Pepto-Bismol for upset stomachs.

The absence of pain has an effect on pleasure. By eliminating pain, humans increasingly seek constant pleasure. Simple pleasures are less likely to be enjoyed; artificial and vicarious pleasures replace the real thing. Be it stimulant drugs or mere numbing daily activities of feeding the brain with entertaining television—both will numb the senses. This point in the book was where Yancey turned away from the physical analysis of pain and more to the philosophical.

He uses a seafarer who welcomes the calm seas after surviving a storm or a human who has recovered to full health after a time of sickness. Deprivation heightens joy. Yancey also observes that pain protects us from damaging ourselves worse. Fear produces adrenaline that primes the body for action. One physician he interviewed said that everything worthwhile includes fear. Guilt prompts change in behavior—knowing right from wrong.

The good connects to the bad. When the applause of this earth is your desire, then life will include only fleeting satisfaction. This point on giving up your life served as the pivot for evaluating how people view earth: a hotel or a jail.

It is easy to see the beautiful parts of the planet and see how it is good. But a single life reveals the ugly and broken nature of earth, which makes the vantage of permanence or temporal quite the significant difference.

Yancey used the modern fable, Watership Down, to highlight the point that the sole purpose of life is not to be comfortable. The tame rabbits in the story traded their acceptance of death to be fat, happy, and content. The wild rabbits noticed that traps and death hung over the land of the tame rabbits. We humans are the same.

To live focused on self-satisfaction—hedonism or some form of it—ignores the pain of the world. Pain should drive people to God in the way that C. When John Donne was bedridden and facing death from typhus, he heard the church bell ringing. Each person is connected by death. Depending on what section you read, you could come up with a different result: God, Satan, evil, or foolish behavior.

His conclusion is that there is not a unified construct of cause. On a related note, when God inflicts suffering in the Bible, it comes with a clear warming. Punishment can only be effective when the reason is clearly communicated. Notice how Jesus used His miraculous healing to relieve pain and suffering.

Yet He did so with reluctance at nearly every turn. It seems that intervening with the wiring of the world should not be a constant happening. No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

What matters is walking with God. Yancey reminds us that happiness is not our earthly goal. He uses the example of a pampered child whose father pushes his daughter in a carriage all her days. Such a child would be so pampered she would become an invalid. Humans are incomplete creatures. We use and abuse the freedom we have. It is in our mistakes that we grow in character or whither in character. If we lived in a world without general laws of nature—one that altered constantly to prevent harm or suffering—would have no need or opportunity for bravery or generosity because there would be no need for the trait because there would be no danger or need.

Attributing suffering directly to God leads to a philosophy of fatalism—all suffering is punishment and inevitable. Look at Hebrews The people of great faith includes some examples of people who prospered by earthly standards, but many lived poverty-filled and suffering lives. These were the people recognized by God. Death is inevitable for all, and the Bible emphasizes that it is not what we die out of but what we die into.

The focus is on the end result of developing perseverance and character. Look at James 1: we do not rejoice in the pain itself but the opportunity for growth and transformation. Yancey told the stories of two talented youths who became quadriplegics their youths: Brian Sternberg and Joni Eareckson Tada.

Sternberg was a world-record pole vaulter and Eareckson who had been a trick horseback rider and lacrosse player. Sternberg lost his fame because of his paralysis, while Eareckson Tada gained it as a painter and speaker.

Both became Christians after paralysis but with different perspectives. Despite these differences, both lived out John 9: neither of them sinned or had parents that sinned to cause their suffering. Pierre Rentchnick researched influential leaders in world history. Paul Tournier continued with this research to explore the effects of creative suffering. Tournier does not propose that suffering is a good thing.

Instead, he noted that the right transforming agent applied at the right time during or after suffering can lead to incredible growth. What leads some to crumble can cause others to grow—the worst hardships can produce strength instead of brokenness. Yancey looked at the special attention God gives to the poor during the sermon on the mount.

He came across a list of the advantages to being poor written by a Catholic Sister named, Monika Hellwig. Yancey adapted the list for suffering: 1. Suffering is the great equalizer. It leads us to realize our need for redemption. Suffering teaches interdependence with each other. Sufferers learn not to put their security in that which can be taken away. Suffering humbles the proud. Suffering leads to little expectation of succeeding in competition.

They expect much in cooperation. Suffering helps distinguish between necessities and luxuries. Suffering teaches patience born of acknowledged dependence. Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears. To suffering people, the gospel offers hope and comfort. It sounds sweet instead of a threat. Those who suffer can respond to the call of the Gospel with total abandonment because they have little to lose.

People who live in comfort have a harder time seeing these benefits. The illusion of self-sufficiency causes people to miss out on the gift of grace. Yet He did. Good can come from tragedy, though this good is hard to see in the moment. Faith means believing in advance what good will come. But actually it operates more like a reflex action with immediate physiological effect.

Muscles tense up and contract involuntarily, often increasing pressure on damages nerves and causing more pain A person who fears needles, also feels more pain from a shot than a diabetic who uses shots on a daily basis.

Pain is supposed to teach us to listen. It is a tool for us to understand its source. Life will always include fear. Our choice is to fear God or to fear everything else. Is God a trustworthy physician? It is a critical question for people to consider. Availability is the best offering we can make to those who are suffering.

Our words and insight do not offer nearly as much as being with someone. Further, someone who is suffering will likely want the same type of relationship and friendship that existed before sickness or suffering. Everything else has changed, so the familiarity is comforting. Further, strangers are unlikely to become friends in sickness; people return—or try to return—to the relationships they had before.

I too often give the refrain that it is a shortcoming of our society that we too seldom ask the big questions or spend time wrestling with philosophy.

So it is perhaps no surprise that I found it interesting to read a book on pain, its purpose, and the ways we think about pain. The book seemed particularly timely while in quarantine, but I think its relevancy is true at all times. Jun 09, Christina Bivins rated it it was amazing. This book helped me through a large turning point in my life. I've gifted many copies to others. Apr 05, Donald Owens II rated it it was ok. I really wanted to like this book, and I expected to, and in many parts I did.

But something really bothered me as I read it. It was hard to put my finger on, so I immediately re-read it. I think it boils down to three things. First, Yancey tries so hard to be inoffensive that he is inconclusive.

I do not mean to imply …that one is more spiritual than the other. At least have the chutzpah to say something. This is his method. He backs off of every strong statement almost to the point of denying it.

The second problem I have with the book is its denial of God's sovereignty. In chapter 7 Yancey denies that we have any right to say that suffering is by the will of God. He also denies that we can ever say that God has given us suffering to teach us anything. He is in us, not in the things that hurt, helping to transfer the bad into good. We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil. We cannot say God brings about the evil in hopes of producing good.

It is wrong because it directly contradicts scripture e. There is no comfort here. Was it a direct creative act of God? Yes, we do have the biblical data to answer those questions. Yancey just fails to wrestle it out. This does not moot the questions. God never gives a straightforward answer to that exact question; it is never directly proposed to Him. His language is sloppy. Does he mean Earth? Then we seem to be asking if another planet would be better. Or does he mean the created order?

Then the answer is actually: 4. A qualified no. Indeed, he goes on to qualify it, saying essentially no, we don't know what it was like before man's rebellion but it certainly isn't now. If God is not entirely sovereign, what other optimism could we support? We're supposed to admire and imitate Brian Sternberg who keeps a positive attitude for decades because he believes God told him he would be healed? But what if God did not tell him that? Hope that is only subjective based only on positive attitude , is not hope.

Such relativism is inherently hopeless. My third, and most serious, objection is the absence of the biblical gospel of grace. The only explanation he offers for the cross is illustration.

Yancey's gospel appears to be not that Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement to redeem us from our well-deserved judgement, but that Jesus suffered merely to learn what suffering is, and to illustrate His willingness to suffer with us, in this pain God did not ordain. God is calling us today to learn from the lower creation and move on to a higher level of evolution and to participate in this community which He is preparing for the salvation of the world.

To those who struggle with my books, I reply, 'Then maybe you shouldn't be reading them. Yet some people do need the kinds of books I write. They've been burned by the church or they're upset about certain aspects of Christianity. I understand that feeling of disappointment, even betrayal. I feel called to speak to those living in the borderlands of faith. Where is God When It Hurts? Rate This Product. Delivery and Shipping. Show More. Instant download. Expected to ship tomorrow from Australia.

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