- What do you say to someone who asks 'Why didn't God stop it?'
A host asks what to say when grieving people honestly ask why God didn't stop the deaths. Don answers that after 41 years of ministry he still has no answer for the whys, only the assurance that God is present and sees us through; he recalls the 9/11 question and a statement attributed to Franklin Graham that God was present with people as the buildings crumbled. A host adds the free-will framing: God gives free will, and stepping in to stop every tragedy would leave him with programmed robots rather than people who voluntarily love him -- true, but not comforting.
More on Suffering
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Midlife-crisis faith questions: when suffering gets close to home
- Which of God's promises can I count on as mine when people are free to refuse them?
The hosts name the first cluster of midlife-crisis faith questions: when the broken world's weight lands close to home, believers ask whether God is really good even when they cannot see it.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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Suffering, character, and the weed-whacking analogy
- Is suffering and going through hard things worth the good that comes out of it?
The host engages Emma's core doubt: is suffering worth the good that comes out of it? God isn't buying perseverance by hurting people — human suffering is reality, and he can use it for good; it's more call to repentance than punitive lesson.
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Why people ditch God
- Why do people ditch God?
Reading a Christian Post article by Robin P. Shoemaker, the hosts work through three reasons people leave faith: bad events that wreck a life, bad representatives of the faith, and bad morals that collide with sexual freedom.
From No. 505 · Because of Fussy and Fuzzy
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Temptation four: avoiding suffering and failure — "Dan, let me ask you directly"
- Are you tempted to avoid suffering and failure?
Ben reads the article's fourth temptation — avoiding suffering and failure — and asks Dan directly whether he's tempted by it. Dan and Mike both say no.
From No. 429 · Following the American Jesus