Question that Never Goes Away

Some days, the news seems too much to bear. Yet another tsunami or earthquake or flood or fire or war atrocity. One more gun-toting madman stalking young people in idyllic Norway or moviegoers in Colorado or schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut. We turn off the news only to get a phone call about expectant parents with a stillborn baby, or a loved one whose cancer has returned. Really, God? we ask. This again? If we have faith in God, it gets shaken to the core. What was God doing in the moment when that tragedy could have been prevented? If we can't trust God to keep our children safe or our loved ones from dying in agony, what can we trust God for? In his classic book Where Is God When It Hurts?, Philip Yancey gave us permission to doubt, reasons not to abandon faith, and practical ways to reach out to hurting people. His visits to three particularly traumatised places in 2012 raised the old problems with new urgency; now, with new perspectives and stories gathered across nearly thirty-five years, once again he tackles the hard questions head-on. Coming to the problem as a veteran pilgrim, Yancey faces the issues that often undermine faith with his trademark honesty, yet finds comfort and hope along the way. Most of all, he shows that Christians have an important role to play in bringing healing to a deeply wounded world, and discovers that there are good reasons to ask, once again, the question that never goes away.