Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey
Week 1: Introduction — The Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Read the Preface and Introduction to Where Is God When It Hurts? Key Scripture: Romans 8:18–28
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Yancey opens not with answers but with the raw, uneasy reality that pain raises questions most of us would rather avoid — this week, give yourself permission to sit with those questions.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Yancey begins by acknowledging that books about pain and suffering are easy to dismiss until you actually need one. Has there been a moment in your own life when the question 'Where is God?' became urgent and personal rather than theoretical? What prompted it?
2.Yancey says he almost didn't write this book because he feared producing another round of glib, unsatisfying answers. What 'glib answers' have you heard — or perhaps given — when someone was suffering? Why do those answers often feel hollow to the person receiving them?
3.The book is organized around several distinct questions: Why does pain exist? What is God's role in it? How do we respond to others in pain? Which of these feels most pressing to you right now, and why?
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