When Answers Aren't Enough: Experiencing God as Good When Life Isnt
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Product Description
On April 16, 2007, the campus of Virginia Tech experienced a collective nightmare when thirty-three students were killed in the worst massacre in modern U.S. history. Following that horrendous event, VA Tech campus pastor Matt Rogers found himself asking and being asked, âWhere is God in all of this?â The cliché-ridden, pat answers rang hollow. In this beautifully written reflection, Rogers illumines the path for experiencing God as truly good when life isnât.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
Strugglin
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Comment:
Matt Rogers tries to unlock that nagging question that haunts those who have experienced tragedy in their lives--"Why would God allow this?" However, this well written narrative feels more like one man's struggle to try to come to terms with a good God in a bad situation and finding Him (which is encouraging) but doesn't necessarily meet his intended goal of being an example to help others come to the same conclusion. I often felt more depressed and empathetic for him, rather than translating it to helping others or myself feel better. (Kind of like having to read Lametations in the Bible only on good days so I don't have a black cloud over my head.) It is possible, however, that this book will mean more to those who also went through a horrendous experience like the VT killings and may have similar unanswered questions. Still worth a read.
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Summary:
Hope even in grief
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Comment:
I found this book honest and at times, heart-wrenching. But in the end, it is also eminently hopeful. It didn't offer up canned responses, it did exactly as I hoped it would. It pointed to the Creator. I would highly recommend this book to anyone grieving.
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Summary:
A journey through God's goodness in the midst of suffering
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Comment:
In his book, "When Answers Aren't Enough," Matt Rogers addresses the question, "If God is good, why is there so much suffering in this world?" Working as a pastor in a church in Blacksburg, Virginia, at the time of the massacre of 33 people at Virginia Tech, he works through this central question not only in light of the happenings at Virginia Tech, but also through his personal experiences and the experiences of others.
The book is divided into three parts. In the first section of the book - Embracing the World That Is - Rogers rawly recounts the day of the shootings at Virginia Tech and the grief surrounding it, as well as worries about his father's health, the recent death of a close friend, and the death of one family's six children. The second section of the book - Embracing the World That Was - tells of Rogers' experiences on the North Carolina Coast, in Estes Park, Colorado, and in Japan. Through his travels, he talks of what God intended for the world in the Bible and how he's becoming more aware of God's goodness surrounding him every day - in the gifts (big and small) that people give, in nature, and in gestures. He spends much of his time searching for those reminders that "God is good even when life isn't" (106). In the third part - Embracing the World That Is To Be - Rogers talks about Heaven, living "between two worlds" (having loved ones in Heaven while the rest of us remain on earth), the coming of Christ (and how exciting that should be), and how suffering is a very individual emotion that cannot be "summed up."
Matt Rogers does not try to force any specific theology on the reader in this book; he does not write densely or in a way that makes his point difficult to understand. He is honest. His language is raw. His questions are real and difficult and uncomfortable, but by asking these questions, he's able to take the reader on a journey through his experiences and offer some insight as his thoughts are challenged and changed throughout the book. The reader truly goes on a journey with Rogers,from utter doubt and anger at how far away a "good God" seems in the midst of suffering, to interrogating others about their faith experiences during times of tragedy, to telling others of his experiences of God's goodness in suffering.
As a young adult who recently experienced the death of someone very near to me, I was enthralled by Rogers' book. It was a quick read and one that could be easily understood in one or two sittings. Rogers honest questions and thoughts on the topic of suffering and experiencing God as good were very insightful and prompted me to ask more questions about my experiences with suffering. His book did not really change or deeply challenge my thoughts on God's goodness in tragedy, but it did put into words the emotions I have felt and the thoughts I've had and solidified my life experiences, as well as helped me to reflect on how I can keep my faith strong when it is challenged by such earthly challenges as death. I would recommend this book to anyone who has experienced tragedy either in their own lives or is supporting someone who has had their faith challenged by suffering, or just to anyone looking for a good read about someone's journey from demanding answers to overarching questions to simply having faith in a good God.
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Summary:
Looking Over Matt Rogers Shoulder
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Comment:
Reading "When Answers Aren't Enough" is like looking over the shoulder of Matt Rogers as he writes in his spiritual journal every day after a life-altering event. This effect is both insightful and depressing.
Only those who have been through the kind of trauma he describes, the mass killing of students and faculty at Virginia Tech, can fully appreciate the depth of pain and dis-ease that enter daily life. It seems as if every part of every day for months afterward was a reminder of something or someone from that moment of his life frozen in time.
I would recommend this book for someone going through a significant sudden loss. The why questions and the search for solutions are a part of many people's lives. Matt may help others cover some familiar ground and help those in pain realize, "I'm not alone. Someone else has struggled with these same issues and questions."
I tried to read it as a minister who sometimes comes alongside those in pain and attempts to help them sense God's nearness even in the midst of this kind of devastating loss. From that perspective I found it less satisfying. It seems that the people most affected by the attack, a student who was wounded and a family who lost a child, were more helpful to Matt than Matt was to others. They seemed to have a season of grief, but then be able to move on to another chapter that included some celebration. A part of me wanted to urge Matt to stop obsessing on himself and his loss of innocence and get back on the field where people are wounded every day in far less dramatic, yet just as significant, ways.
A friend of mine used to be a Campus Minister at Kent State. He said that even though the shootings during the Viet Nam War had happened decades before, there was still a sense of "darkness" around campus and especially as the yearly anniversary came up. Matt may have to be prepared to write a sequel to this book in a few years to explain how life does or does not move on for him.
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Summary:
Recipes for Hope
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Comment:
The hope of the Christian faith demands to be decompressed. Only then can we see how much of the expanse of despair it can actually fill. And where our natural response to crisis or trial is often to condense a message of hope into a gelcap panacea that might get the sufferer through, Matt Rogers has taken his time to explore the places of pain and the God of comfort, and to carefully write out the recipes for lasting hope.
In an often poetic style, Rogers mines for experience in Christian scripture and tradition. And for all the decompression of such an all-encompassing faith, the text is delivered in 2-3 page microchapters -- each of which left me saying, "No, that was my favorite chapter. That's the one I'd want to share with so-and-so." It is this very unique paradigm, that every chapter is so good and so short, that I not only wish to share a chapter with a friend, but would enthusiastically urge anyone and everyone to read the book.
Whatever season of life you find yourself in, "When Answers Aren't Enough" will rise to the occasion to encourage you, to challenge you, and to lead you to be filled with the goodness of God.
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