By: Angela, Community Engagement Coordinator
On the back cover of a novel reads, “If we are honest, we have to admit that there are many things we don’t understand about God.” This is no groundbreaking claim, yet, we are always in constant search for an answer, an explanation, or a personal justification about our God. Will we ever find the answers we’re looking for?
This summer, I had the pleasure of reading not one, not two, not three, not— okay, I only read two books, but they were some of the most insightful and applicable pieces of works I’ve ever had the chance to read. One of the novels was The God I Don’t Understand by Christopher J. H. Wright, a book that strives to cover some of the major bases when it comes to questions we have about God and biblical events, even for the average skeptic atheist. One thing that really sold me on this book was how accessible the content of book was, in a sense, that he didn’t use complicated language or used niche biblical passages to get his points across, but gave lots of context and simple explanations that makes this book a good read for anyone regardless of their background knowledge in christianity.
One of the main things this book covered was how an omnipotent, good God can simultaneously co-exist in a world where evil and suffering are so rampant. Shouldn’t a snap of His fingers solve all of our problems? If God loves His people so much, how can he bear to let them be in pain? We read about suffering everyday on the national headlines, whether it’s man-made or by a force of nature, and we often get a firsthand experience of personal levels of pain and grief in our own daily lives. I feel that this book does a good job at combating these questions that may often arise when we encounter unjustness and suffering in this world. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into detail with the explanations the author offers but it was the most comforting to know and be reassured that our almighty and omnipotent God hurts just as much for us when we are suffering.
But most importantly, I like that this book highlights that we are not necessarily in the wrong for crying out to God when we are in distress and in pain as our forefathers did. Shoutout to the book of Lamentations for paving the way. I’m not sure how universal this experience may be, but I feel like I have been in a constant limbo between “Only give your glory to God!!! Sing praises always!” and “Cast your burdens on God!!! But only if it’s in a controlled manner.” There always seemed to be little room to genuinely question God, to shout into the void for an answer to our predicament. Because, although I’ve fallen into the habit of accepting that everything happens for a reason, I believe that our relationship with God also stems from one of mutual trust and understanding, although our understanding of Him will always fall short. Trusting that suffering occurs for a reason is one thing, but understanding God is another thing, which can often get clouded by our judgement in times of distress. Without fully relying on God, which can include crying out to Him, questioning Him, or even doubting, we may not be able to fully grow and learn from these experiences, nor be able to sing our praises for him without feeling like there is a heavy burden on our hearts at all times from the unrelieved grief.
This book is applicational in nature; in fact, it encourages thinking outside of the box that we may have construed for ourselves throughout our faith journey. Much of the points made are taken directly from the bible with a little analysis on the side, but it really shows how the truth that God wants us to live by is pretty much all given to us in this wonderful book, but it is we who sometimes stray from it or form our own ideas about it and blindly follow it like the truth. However, despite being a very applicable book, I think it requires a lot of personal reflection and acceptance to actually incorporate the ideas of this book into our own lives when we actually do encounter these doubts about God, or are in the midst of questioning and suffering. To constantly remind ourselves that nothing in this world can disprove the truth that God is eternally good. To practice and accept that it is okay, and even encouraged for us to cry out to Him with our burdens and let Him carry our cross. To continue pushing for a greater understanding of our God and never settle for what the world is telling us, for our relationship with Him is so personal and so deeply rooted in our own efforts to get to know him more.
PS: In case you were wondering, I would give this book a rating of [cliffhanger].