100 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Powerful Work Of Hope, October 5, 2000
This review is from: Disappointment With God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud (Mass Market Paperback)
This is, hands down, the best treatment on the subject of the problem of pain that I have ever read. Where Yancy's Where Is God When It Hurts deals more with physical pain, Disappointment With God deals with the emotional and mental side of the problem. Every human being at one time or another will deal with this issue, to some degree. Why does God seem distant when we need to feel Him most? Why do bad things happen if He loves us? How come He was so present and vocal in the Bible, but not today? Is God fair? I only want a sign, a small sign; why doesn't He answer? Hard questions such as these plague everyone's mind at some time, and often drive a wedge in a person's faith. Does God care?
Yancey uses the book of Job in a way that many of us may never have seen to present God's case. He gives gentle answers; very important and human answers to these very human questions and hurts. He doesn't pretend to know all the answers and he refuses to give any canned or cliched replies. But he does give his best, and his best is remarkably worthy. You can see that Yancey himself has struggled greatly with these issues, and his empathy and experience show.If you've ever dealt with these questions, with the disappointment with God to any degre, or if you know someone who has, you must read this book. Five Stars (a rating that Yancey is very familiar with).
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73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If God loves us, why does life suck?, December 7, 2005
This review is from: Disappointment With God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud (Mass Market Paperback)
Years ago, Philip Yancey was contacted by a young theology student named Richard. One of his professors had encouraged Richard to expand an exemplary paper about Job into a book. Mr. Yancey was impressed with the draft, and even agreed to write the forward for publication. But by the time it reached the publishers, Richard had lost his faith. He no longer believed what he'd written. "Disappointment With God" was born out of several frank conversations between Mr. Yancey and Richard about the nature of suffering and what God should be doing about it.
Despite Richard's prayers and service to God, his life had come unglued. His fiancée dumped him, a job fell through, his health declined, and so on. Richard felt betrayed, and finally broke from God. Many people have shared Richard's anguish over what appears to be meaningless suffering. How is it that one can love God and do everything right, yet have his or her life crash and burn? In contrast, how do bad people seem to get away with, and even prosper, because of sin? Who wouldn't question God when children die in agony and dictators live to a ripe old age in opulence? Like Richard, some have lost their faith because they could not reconcile the idea of a loving and omnipotent God with the existence of suffering.
An atheist will say, "Of course you have disappointment, because there is no God." Others, like Rabbi Kushner, imply that God doesn't have the power to halt all suffering. And there are those who insist that an omnipotent God who allows suffering cannot be good. Mr. Yancey deals with these angles in chapters with provocative titles such as: "Why is God Silent?", "Is God Unfair?", and "Why God Doesn't Intervene." Using a Scriptural foundation, he makes a compelling case for reconciling the existence of an all-good and all-powerful God with a broken world. In addition, the author explores his own doubts, along with the stories of others who have suffered.
However, theology and anecdotes are small comfort when you're the one in the hurt locker. As the Psalms imply, only concrete intervention from God seems to matter when life has gone to hell. Along those lines, skeptics ask why God doesn't make Himself known, or intervene in an unmistakable manner. Mr. Yancey examines various Biblical examples to see if God's use of these tactics resulted in long-term faithfulness. For example, despite many signs and interventions, God's Old Testament followers routinely blew Him off in favor of idolatry and debauchery. In addition, Christ Himself was abandoned by those He healed or knew Him best. From these and other Biblical passages, the author postulates that it is not spectacular miracles that will help us in troubled times. Instead, we must freely love God and trust His character from faith to faith, even when things look darkest and God appears most distant. That's because God, like any lover, wants to be loved for who He is, and not for what He can do for us. Not an easy path, but according to Mr. Yancey it's a necessary one - especially in light of eternity.
Some may dismiss "Disappointment With God" as wishful thinking, preaching to the choir, or fundamentalist hogwash. But if you are hurting like Richard, check it out before you give up on Him. What have you got to lose?
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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is a MUST Read., July 31, 2000
This review is from: Disappointment With God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to have a fuller understanding of who God is and how we can view and work through those feelings of anger and disappointment when He doesn't do what we want him to do. It's not just for someone going through a dry period in their relationship with God (although it's GREAT for those dry periods). Phillip Yancey wrote Disappointment with God after he wrote Where is God When It Hurts which is about where God is in the midst of our physical pain. This is because he got a lot of letters from readers of Where is God When It Hurts who wondered "Where is God when it hurts emotionally?"
So Yancey secluded himself in a cabin for a couple of weeks and read through the entire Bible, and during that time he realized many profound things about the character of God as it relates to our emotional suffering. The first half of the book deals with the character of God in the Old Testament; and Yancey theorizes(in the context of the people of Israel) why God might seem/be more hidden or silent to us. His theory makes so much sense, that when you read it, you'll wonder why you never put the pieces together before. The only bit of advice I would offer about you reading this book would be for you to make sure that you are not becoming less disappointed with God as a result of expecting less from Him.
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