Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey
Week 9: Chapter 8 — Is God Silent?
Read Chapter 8 of Where Is God When It Hurts? Key Scripture: Psalm 22:1–2; Matthew 27:46; Isaiah 53:1–6
Previewing Week 9 of Where Is God When It Hurts?
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 13-week guide when you’re ready.
One of the most painful dimensions of suffering is the felt absence of God — Yancey takes this experience seriously and asks what it means, and what it doesn't.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Yancey addresses the experience that many suffering people report: not just that life is hard, but that God seems absent, silent, or even indifferent. Have you experienced this? How did you respond to it?
2.Yancey draws a distinction between God being silent and God being absent — between God not speaking and God not being there. Is that distinction meaningful to you? Does it help, or does it feel like a subtle evasion of the problem?
3.Read Matthew 27:46 alongside Psalm 22:1. Jesus quotes the psalm from the cross — 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — which means the experience of divine abandonment is not unique to us; it was experienced by Jesus himself. How does that fact land for you?
a.Does it comfort you that Jesus entered the experience of God-forsakenness, or does it raise new questions?
b.If Jesus — who was fully united with the Father — could feel abandoned by God, what does that suggest about the relationship between feelings of abandonment and the reality of God's presence?