I know this post may read like a book review, but this book really touched me and is just my ramblings about it. =)
The post below this IS a review and I am giving you a chance to win the book, click HERE FOR DETAILS.
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I am currently reading a book that fits so well with this week’s events and my mood. Matt Rogers wrote the book, When Answers Aren’t Enough, Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn’t. I have never read such a heart filled honest book about grieving. Matt Rogers has been a co-pastor of his church at Virginia Tech for only a year when thirty-three students died in one of the worst massacres of our time. But this is not a book filled with “pastor” sayings, it is real and raw.
This week brought many emotions for me, the death of Maria Chapman; which led to the remembrance of a little girl I use to babysit who died in a horse accident when I was a Senior in HS; then this week one of our cars had the driver side window smashed in while we slept (and we live in what is considered a low crime area); and why does the Lord appear to be saying ‘no’ to me every turn I make?
In his book, Matt poses the questions:
If God is good, why is there so much suffering?
Why doesn’t God just stop it?
Did he allow {blank} to happen?
Father why don’t you just step in?
As a Christian, I know the answers. But this week I found myself telling God, these answers are not enough! And right now where I stand I am not ok with the answers that God gives.
Does that mean I believe any less that God is good? No, but how do you find God’s goodness in such pain?
Matt shares some heart breaking stories in his book, but each person he interviews they talk about God’s goodness and God’s faithfulness. I don’t know about you, but when I just have lost a loved one, or gone through some tragedy God’s goodness may not be the first thing on my mind. So how do we get to the point where we see God’s goodness in all things?
There is so much to glean from Matt’s book and I encourage you to read it, but one thing that really spoke to me is the way we pray for protection or healing. Sure we can pray for it, but in John 16:33 Jesus says, “you will have trouble.” And when we look at each of the disciples, every one of them was killed a martyr’s death except one. That tells us, faith alone does not keep us safe. Many times when something does happen (ie…death, cancer, sickness, tragedy, etc..) our first reaction is anger that God did not stop it or that we deserve what we got.
Matt says he can imagine Jesus telling us, “ ‘you are angry at me for failing to deliver on a promise I never made. I have not guaranteed your physical safety.’ ” I think this hits many of us especially who live in Canada or the US, we have been ‘relatively’ safe and it is easy to expect it.
Each of us will face death, but we must remember in the Garden of Eden there was no death, death is part of our curse. So this evil, the fact that we die, or we lose loved ones while here on earth is part of the separation between God and us. For me personally I don’t want to ever be OK with that. But what I do want to learn is how to experience God’s goodness in the midst of the awful.
Psalm 34: 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Oh heck, I do have an extra book of this one too and I am feeling generous (especially if you read these ramblings all the way down). If this is a book that you would like to read; I only want serious readers for this book. Leave me a comment and I will send one person a copy of Matt Rogers book When Answers Aren’t Enough; Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn’t. I do warn you it is not ‘easy’ reading, but one so open and honest about going through difficult times and finding God’s goodness.
Comments will close 10pm (eastern) May 28th.
Tags: giveaway
