Discipleship Group – Where is God when it hurts by Philip Yancey

My discipleship group today explored the topic on suffering. We used as materials the book by Philip Yancey titled ‘Where is God when it hurts’. We talked about the various scenarios of sufferings that exist in the world, from relatively small ones like a relationship breakup, to large ones like suffering from cancer. One of the questions from the material was whether one’s witness of suffering, be it personal or that of friends’ or relatives’, has made one conscious of a different set of values in life. One thing that our discipleship group agreed upon is the success-oriented and materialistic mindsets in Singapore’s culture. And sometimes, suffering puts all these things into perspective, that life and health is more important than success. I brought up the account of the late Dr Richard Teo who died of cancer when he was only 40 years old. His story was featured in the newspaper. He was a successful ophthalmologist, owning his private practice, a millionaire. He was in the prime of his life, and had just made a deal to buy a piece of land where he wanted to build his bungalow, when he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Before dying, he gave a speech about his thoughts on life, wealth, and success, and his reflections. I was thinking how dreadful it must have felt for him to be diagnosed with a terminal illness from out of the blue, with no apparent rhyme or reason. He was thinking about affairs in life, such as buying a house with the wealth he had accumulated, and had no inkling of thought in his mind that he should find himself struck by incurable cancer.

A member brought up the point about how he felt some form of suffering cannot find any suitable form of justification for. He talked about the example of the woman Fantine in Les Miserables who had to resort to prostitution in order to provide for her child, an act which many would consider immoral. He asked, how can God allow a person who had every intention to walk in an upright manner in life to have to resort to immorality in order to sustain herself? He says this doesn’t sit well with the promise in the bible to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”(Matthew 6:33)

I have read that in the world of philosophy, the philosopher Alvin Platinga has convincingly explained away the logical problem of the problem of evil in what is called the free will defence. That is, the existence of evil is not logically incompatible with the existence of God. But the evidential problem of evil remains, given with the characterization of a good and loving God in Christian theodicy. And verses such as that above espousing the concept of divine providence and protection comes into question in the face of the existence of evil.

One description of an instance of suffering in the book was the experience of the holocaust for the Jews. There was this account by a man named Elie Wiesel who described his experience in his book titled ‘Night’. He was witnessing the German soldiers carrying out an execution, one of the victims being a young boy whom he described as having the face ‘of a sad little angel’. He heard someone behind him asked twice ‘Where is God now?’ And he heard a voice within him answer him, “Where is He? Here He is – He is hanging here on this gallows…”

Philip Yancey writes, “Wiesel lost his faith in God at that concentration camp. For him, God literally hung to death on the gallows, never to be resurrected. But in fact the image that Wiesel evokes so powerfully contains within it the answer to his question: Where was God? The voice within Elie Wiesel spoke truth: in a way, God did hang beside the young boy. God did not exempt even himself from human suffering. He too hung on a gallows, at Calvary, and that alone is what keeps me believing in a God of love.”

As a conclusion to the study, I referred to Philip Yancey’s words at page 172 – 174. “What can we do to help those who hurt? And who can help us when we suffer? I begin with some discouraging good news. The discouraging aspect is that I cannot give you a magic formula. There is nothing much you can say to help suffering people. Some of the brightest minds in history have explored every angle of the problem of pain, asking why people hurt, yet still we find ourselves stammering out the same questions, unrelieved. As I’ve mentioned, not even God attempted an explanation of cause or a rationale for suffering in his reply to Job. The great king David, the righteous man Job, and finally even the Son of God reacted to pain much the same way as we do. They recoiled from it, thought it horrible, did their best to alleviate it, and finally cried out to God in despair because of it. Personally, I find it discouraging that we can come up with no final, satisfying answer for people in pain.

And yet viewed in another way that nonanswer is surprisingly good news. When I have asked suffering people, “Who helped you?” not one person has mentioned a Ph,D from Yale Divinity School or a famous philosopher. The kingdom of suffering is a democracy, and we all stand in it or alongside it with nothing but our naked humanity. All of us have the same capacity to help, and that is good news.

No one can package or bottle “the appropriate response to suffering.” And words intended for everyone will almost always prove worthless for one individual person. If you go to the sufferers themselves and ask for helpful words, you may find discord. Some recall a friend who cheerily helped distract them from the illness, while others think such an approach insulting. Some want honest, straightforward confrontation; others find such discussion unbearably depressing.

In short, there is no magic cure for a person in pain. Mainly, such a person needs love, for love instinctively detects what is needed. Jean Vanier, founder of l’Arche movement, says it well: “Wounded people who have been broken by suffering and sickness ask for only one thing: a heart that loves and commits itself to them, a heart full of hope for them.”

In fact the answer to the question, “How do I help those who hurt?” is exactly the same as the answer to the question, “How do I love?” If you asked me for a Bible passage to teach you how to help suffering people, I would point to 1 Corinthians 13 and its eloquent depiction of love. That is what a suffering person needs: love, and not knowledge and wisdom. As is so often his pattern, God uses very ordinary people to bring about healing.

Nevertheless, love itself breaks down into specific and practical acts. We meet suffering people in every school, in every church, in every public building, as well as in every hospital. All of us will one day join them. As I’ve listened to what they have to say, I have come up with four “frontiers” where every suffering person will do battle: the frontiers of fear, helplessness, meaning, and hope. Our response to suffering depends largely on the outcome of our struggle in those frontiers.”

I suppose different people will find comfort in different outlooks and life philosophies. Some say, they shall take destiny into their own hand, whilst others reckon humbly with the boundaries of their personal limitations, and find solace in a higher power. I don’t know how much comfort religion gives people, and how it does so. Some people find a certain state of repose and serenity to their suffering, whilst others trudge through the entire journey tormented unremittingly by doubt and confusion. Different people respond differently to the predicament of suffering. Amidst the confusion, perhaps one can take hope that things would be better, in some way, and on some day, that there may be respite in the days in which one is living. Or that in less than a hundred years from now, life will be over and one will see no more of the painful afflictions to be. But while we are the living, to bear patiently with our afflictions, to shed a tear for the lost, and to help and comfort those in need.