Me Thinks

This is an excellent book. Mr. Yancey helps us to attach meaning to our suffering and gives wonderful advice on how to reach out to those who are suffering. He teaches trust in God and His ability to turn all things for our good.

Suffering produces something. It has value; it changes us (pg. 110). Pain, however meaningless it may seem at the time, can be transformed. Where is God when it hurts? He is in us—not in the things that hurt—helping to transform bad into good. We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil; we cannot say that God brings about the evil in hopes of producing good (pg. 111).

God does not, in the comfortable surroundings of heaven, turn a deaf ear to the sounds of suffering on this groaning planet (pg. 160).

Our search for meaning should move in a forward-looking direction, toward the results of suffering, rather than dwelling on its cause (pg. 203).

It is not our words or our insights that they want most; it is our mere presence.  By being alongside at a time of need we convey the same comfort that a parent gives a confused and wounded child: “It’s all right, it’s all right.” The world will go on.  I am with you in this scary time (pg. 181).

In some ways it would be easier for God to step in, to have faith for us, to help us in extraordinary ways.  But he has instead chosen to stand before us, arms extended, while he asks us to walk, to participate in our own soul-making.  That process always involves struggle, and often involves suffering (pg. 94).