Where is God When it Hurts
Philip Yancey Explores Pain and How We Cope
Theological and philosophical Christian powerhouse Philip Yancey explores the 'problem of pain.'
In 1990, Philip Yancey revised and expanded (257 pages plus discussion questions at the end) his classic treatise on pain, Where is God When it Hurts. He explains that the reason he updated an already successful book is because of his ongoing conversations with those who suffer.
Why Write another Book about Pain?
Yancey answers the question of why from the very beginning. In the preface, he asks “How do we respond to hurting people?” His book provides not only portraits of pain from many perspectives but it also suggests how to meet people in pain where they need to be met. This book ought to be read not only by those who suffer but those who want to reach out to them in love and understanding.
About the Problem
The first two sections of the book deal with the problem of pain. They are the weakest segments of the book as they try to satisfy the questions that those who suffer throw at God; especially the big questions such as “Why me?” and “If God is a loving God why does he permit suffering?” Yancey’s arguments end up feeling circular.
If a satisfying understanding of pain is part of the reader’s quest, Paul Brand’s book “The Gift of Pain” is necessary reading as it will round out and add depth to what Yancey writes in his book.
His most poignant and perhaps most helpful discussion about pain comes near the end of the second section of the book in a small chapter titled ‘Extreme Cases.’ In it, he discusses the responses of WWII concentration camp survivors. These survivors suffered not only physical pain but also suffered a complete assault on their concept of humanity. One of the most revealing moments is when he turns Eli Weisal’s denial of God’s loving presence into an affirmation of God’s love and care.
Responding to Pain
The next two sections of the book tackle responses to pain. In part 3 “How People Respond to Suffering” Yancey includes interviews with two famous paraplegics Joni Eareckson Tada and Brian Sternberg. He includes the interviews he conducted for the first edition of the book. He then supplements the initial interviews and observations with additional observations of the changes in their lives since he first met them. He also shares a second interview with Sternberg.
Yancey also expanded the section “How Can We Cope with Pain” as an attempt to fulfill and to help others fulfill God’s mandate to the church to “represent His love to a suffering world.”
Faith and Pain
While written by well-known Christian author, Yancey suggests that the first four sections would be helpful for unbelievers as well as believers. However, he adds a final section, “How Does Faith Help,” directed specifically at Christians dealing with the pain. In it, his most powerful argument is made through a quote by an unbeliever named Rollo May. In May’s book My Quest for Beauty he writes “I was seized then by a moment of spiritual reality: what would it mean for our world if He had truly risen.”
Yancey spins it and ultimately the question becomes “What would it mean for us if those who are in pain truly do rise from the dead and receive new life without pain or deformity?” In this, Yancey finally resolves the questions he dances around in the first two sections of the book.
Dregs and Nuggets
Philip Yancey’s book “Where is God When it Hurts” is an important book and ought to be read by anyone who is concerned about suffering in this world, both their own suffering and pain as well as that of others. However, do not expect the book to be an undiluted source of helpfulness. It must be panned for the nuggets that are most helpful to the reader and the dregs must be tossed aside.
Yancey, Philip. Where is God When it Hurts. Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.
