by Philip Yancey
Hennepin County Library hardcover 183 pages
Published: 1977
Genre: Christian theology
Ugh! This was due a week ago and I've had too many books to read. I have vacillated between hurrying to finish it, buy a copy, or . . . return it and request it again. I've decided on the last one. I'm trying to NOT buy things that I don't NEED. But this book is worth a read!
When I was a teen struggling with the idea of faith, I had questions about how a good God allowed so much suffering and evil. Someone recommended a book that I bought and read . . . and had even more questions after! (If you're curious, it was Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People.)
This book is what I needed four decades ago!
I've marked a few spots, but need to finish this entry later after I've finished the book.
Page 44: "The more you coddle children, he says, the more you set them up for an insulated, sensation-starved life."
Yancey is referring to Dr. Brand, the man who spent his life working with lepers (rather, people with Hansen's Disease). Some parents seek to shield their children from any and every unpleasantness in life. But life is full of pain - physical, emotional, social - and it's helpful to learn how to deal with it while young.
Page 52: "And these are the people who raise the question 'Where is God when it hurts?' most shrilly. If our faith cannot answer them, then we have nothing to say to a broken world."
I like the way Yancey confronts his fellow Christians head on. As believers, we *should* be able to talk with people about God's role in their lives. That said, it was hard to read some of the "Christian" responses to people's suffering. Some of the insensitive platitudes do little to show the love and compassion of Christ. Ouch!
Page 57: "Pain, God's megaphone, can drive me away from Him. I can hate God for allowing such misery. Or, on the other hand, it can drive me to Him. I can believe Him when He says this world is not all there is, and take the chance that He is making a perfect place for those who follow Him on pain-wracked earth."
I forget sometimes that this (earth) is NOT my home! It's very liberating to remember that there's an eternity (pain-free, anger-free) waiting for me after this life.
Page 73: "We make faith not an attitude of trust in something unseen but a route to get something seen - something magical and stupendous, like a miracle or supernatural gift. Faith includes the supernatural, but it also includes daily, dependent trust in spite of results. True faith implies a belief without solid proof - the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. God is not mere magic."
Yancey is referring to healing. While it is exciting to celebrate God's healing power, it can certainly leave those who believe and are NOT physically healed feeling discouraged.
I didn't finish chapter 6 because my to-do list exceed my allowed time. I am on page 75 (almost to part 2). 10.6.22
<Above started on 10.6.22. Below added on 5.16.23.>
It's overdue again, but at least I've finished it! Actually, I re-read from the beginning and I have a LOT more post-its in there. (Yes, I should probably just buy my own copy, but I didn't.) I may not add commentary, but these passages really spoke to me.
Page 14: "Why was Claudia moaning in a hospital bed while I stood beside her, healthy? What new words of Christian advice could I add? Something inside me recoiled as I heard the cliched comments to sufferers floating through the hospital corridors. Is Christianity supposed to confuse the sufferer or, rather, help him?"
This situation led to Yancey researching and writing this book. His conversational style makes me feel as though we're chatting about these issues.
Page 16: "'You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.'"
This quote from C.S. Lewis reflects the pain he went through seeing his beloved wife suffer from bone cancer.
Page 38: "Examples of 'painless hell' are numerous and tragic. They should make all of us discard the common notion that pain is an unpleasantness to be avoided at all costs. Generally, pain does not dampen life. More than anything, it frees us to enjoy normalcy on this planet. Without it, we would lead unbalanced, paranoid lives, encountering unknown dangers, never confident that we weren't destroying ourselves."
Page 44 - I marked the line about coddling children again. Being protective and being overprotective result in very different kinds of people. Getting the balance right is important and not always easy! But parents should NOT try to shield children from every unpleasantness. Life needs to be dealt with!
Page 52: "Later in this book you will meet people with broken spinal cords and Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. These are the people we must face head-on. No amount of mushy rationalizing can resolve their piercing question 'Where is God when it hurts?' most shrilly. If our faith cannot answer them, then we have nothing to say to a broken world."
Wow. He doesn't pull punches. And I love the title of this book . . .
Page 57: "I had often called myself an optimist, to avoid the too evident blasphemy of pessimism. But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world."
This quotation from G.K. Chesterton is a great reminder that believers are NOT at home on Earth. Our home is waiting for us in Heaven. Eternity is a long time!
Page 63: "If you believe in a world of chance, what difference does it make whether Yuba City's bus or Salina's bus crashes? But if you believe in a world ruled by a powerful God who loves you tenderly - then it makes an awful difference. . . . Posing the questions may sound sacrilegious. But they've haunted me and other Christians I know. And they've been tossed at me like spears by scoffing friends."
His reference to the Yuba City bus is based on a 1976 accident that killed 29 choir students. Grief, sorrow, loss, pain . . . people wonder if it's God's punishment, or conversely why he allowed it to happen. This is the crux of this book - why?
Page 65: "The New Testament, however, seems to pull away from the Old Testament pattern of reward / punishment, possibly because of a shift in God's manner of acting in the world."
Yancey is referring to the difference that Jesus Christ makes.
Page 67: "Maybe God isn't trying to tell us anything specific each time we hurt. Pain and suffering are part and parcel of our planet, and Christians are not exempt. Half the time we know why we get sick: too little exercise, a poor diet, contact with a germ. Do we really expect God to go around protecting us whenever we encounter something dangerous?"
Page 69: "God wants us to freely choose to love Him, even when that choice involves pain - because we are committed to Him, not to our own good feelings and rewards. He wants us to cleave to Him, as Job did, even when we have every reason to hotly deny Him."
Page 73: "A sick person is not unspiritual. The Bible does not pretend that a Christian should expect life to be easier, more antiseptic, or safer than for a non-Christian."
Page 86: "'Pain turned you to God' - in my view, this is probably the most accurate, succinct summary of the role of suffering.It blends with the Bible's tone of emphasizing the Christian's response, not the cause of the suffering."
Yancey quotes from 2 Corinthians 7:8-11. (Read it. Good stuff!)
Page 90: "God does not need our good responses for Himself, to satisfy some parental hunger. He focuses attention on our response, I believe, for our sakes, not His. Would it help our condition to know exactly why God is permitting our suffering? Such knowledge may engender even more bitterness. But it does help our condition when God asks us to turn to Him. It can break down our self-sufficiency and create in us a profound new sense of faith in God. And, it can produce changes of lasting value inside us."
Yes! We need God, even when we think we're self-sufficient! The more we think we're in control, the harder life gets.
Page 97: "'God did not rescue me and make my suffering easier. He simply proved to me that He was still alive, and He still knew I was here. We Christians drew together . . . . I can only speak for myself. Others turned from God because of Dachau. Who am I to judge them? I simply know that God met me. For me, He was enough, even at Dachau.'"
I have no idea how my faith might sustain me if I were ever in such a horrible situation. I want to build up my faith and memorize God's Word so that I am ready if ever tested! This quotation is from Christian Reger, a pastor who was rounded up by the Nazis. His physical and spiritual health were at stake.
Page 104: "Yet he also know that his faith in God couldn't be a bargain: 'You heal me, God, and I'll believe.' He had to believe because God was worthy of his faith. He took that risk and committed his life to Jesus Christ."
This chapter is about Brian Sternberg, an athlete who broke his spinal cord in a 1963 training accident. He and his parents were confident that God could heal him completely (and that's what they prayed and hoped for). I had to Google him to find out what happened . . . I like this example of knowing that we don't "bargain" with God. Our prayers are part of our relationship with Him.
Page 137: "Medical scientists are discovering that our attitude about a particular pain is one of the chief factors in intensifying its effects."
Yes! Attitude matters a lot! This chapter dealt with things that can make pain seem much worse, including fear and helplessness.
Page 142: "Strong feelings of fear or helplessness not only worsen a sick patient's condition, they actually may make healthy people more susceptible to illness."
Page 143: "A warning, then, to any person facing prolonged illness, is to look for ways to avoid feelings of helplessness."
Page 146: "A majority of people turned to God with a dramatic prayer. Church attendance swelled to record numbers, but within a year it had dropped back to normal."
Here he's referring to a 1964 earthquake in Alaska. It's a really interesting chapter. But this one line reminded me of people turning to churches after 9/11 . . . then fading away. We go to God in crisis, but don't want to commit to a long-term relationship with him. Complacency and selfishness . . . .
Page 149: "Sufferings can become a trap for self-pity, wounded pride, martyr feelings, and a negative self-image. Other people can represent the only way to help a person climb out of his helpless despair."
He goes on to talk about how happy success stories can be overemphasized. (Think Chicken Soup for the Soul resolutions . . . ) This made me think of the phrase "toxic positivity." I don't want to be guilty of lacking compassion for others' suffering. (But I definitely thought about people I know when I read the excerpt above. Some people definitely seem to thrive on sharing their sufferings and misery.)
Page 155: "'I think God has planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we'll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty which is forever. And so we'll be eager to leave 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!'"
I love this! Yes, we age and weaken and have more physical problems. God designed us to go home to Him with new bodies!
Page 160: "The scene, with the sharp spikes and bleeding death and wrenching thud as the cross was dropped in the ground, has been told so often, that we, who shrink from a news story on the death of a race horse or of baby seals, flinch not at all at its retelling. It was a bloody death, an execution quite unlike the quick, sterile ones we know today - gas chambers, electric chairs, hangings. This one stretched on for hours in front of a jeering crowd."
Reading this made me think of the teen who watched The Passion of the Christ when it came out and said it was no big deal. We have become desensitized to violence in our culture.
Page 170: ". . . Do we listen to them, hear them, respond? Or do we, through numbness, allow them to self-destruct, sacrificing a limb of the body of Christ? The screams of pain are not always so far away: there are some in every church and office. The unemployed, divorced, widowed, bedridden, aged . . . are we listening to them? The Christian church, by all accounts, has done a mediocre job of acting as Christ's body through the ages. Sometimes it has seemed to devour itself (the Inquisition, religious wars). Yet Christ, committed to human freedom, still relies upon us to flesh out His will in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit."
Again, I love that Yancey is straightforward. The body of Christ needs to wake up! We have a job to do.
Page 171: "Bear one another's burdens, the Bible says. It is a lesson about pain that we all can agree to. Some of us will not see pain as a gift; some will always accuse God of being unfair for allowing it. But, the fact is, pain and suffering are here among us, and we need to respond. The response Jesus showed was to bear the burdens of those He touched."
I want to live out my life in faith as a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ.
Page 173: "Christ brought us the possibility of an afterlife without pain and suffering. All our hurts, then, are temporary. Our future will be painless. Today, we are almost embarrassed to talk about belief in an afterlife . . . "
Thank you, Jesus. Help me to not be embarrassed to talk about my hope and your promises.
Page 181: "As I visited those whose pain far exceeded my own, though, I was surprised by its effects. Suffering was as likely to produce strengthened faith as to sow agnosticism. . . . In one sense, there will be no solution to pain until Jesus returns and recreates the earth. I am sustained by faith in that great hope."
I'm glad I read this. I need to return it to the library so others can read it! And perhaps I'll end up buying myself a copy anyhow . . .
