WHEN GOD SEEMS GONE:
Finding hope when nothing makes sense
By Adam Mabry
Good Book Company. 103 pages, £7.64
ISBN 978 1 784 988 197
This book was really not what I was expecting, in the best possible way.
When God Seems Gone approaches suffering from a different angle, not seeking to provide neat answers through rigorous theological study, nor drawing readers into the author’s own experiences. Rather, this book primarily looks at how different people in the Bible have coped in moments of crisis, and how they got through it.
I expect a book on suffering to connect with my pain and provide some comforting reflections on God’s character for me to cling to. Don’t hear me saying otherwise – this book does do that. Yet it unexpectedly left me feeling challenged about my response to suffering. It helped me see that when God seems unfair, I’m so often prone to self-pity because I think God owes me something, even if subconsciously. Or, when God disappoints, I’m often guilty of having a skewed understanding of what He is like and what I can expect from Him. Yet, amidst all of this, there is a compassionate recognition that these things won’t make the pain go away, but may leave us with a clearer picture of both God and ourselves, which goes a long way when life is hard. The six chapters are short, packed with practical wisdom, and there is also a gritty and refreshingly uncensored honesty about life’s hardships.
Mabry isn’t preachy, nor does he offer generic responses to suffering that, even if true, are rarely helpful when experiencing any sort of pain or silence from God.
Despite not being about his experience, it’s clear he and his family have suffered deeply and so you never feel you’re being talked down to. It feels very much like he’s in the pit with you as you read, in the uncomfortable place in which we all so often sit. The place where we’re experiencing deep hurt and wondering why God hasn’t stepped in, or why He’s allowed it to happen in the first place. Yet in that place it helps us to reckon both with God Himself, but also with our own brokenness and the role that can sometimes play. Highly recommended.
