We want a world without pain, fear, or heartache. When trouble comes our way, we cry, “Why me?”
Why do we suffer? Why does God let bad things happen to good people? To find answers, we look beneath the surface of life, using the eyes of faith.
Is anyone listening? We shake our fists at heaven. We plead our case before God and others. We are sure we deserve better. In this certainty lie the seeds of hope.
Can we ease the pain? For this to happen, we must pick ourselves up and together build something good out of life’s brokenness. This is the work of love.
Comments from Readers
“Gary Watts has given us a tender, wise, and readable book about the oldest and deepest of all questions: Why must we suffer so much? His book is simple enough to please my Aunt Sophie and profound enough to challenge my brightest students. It is bound to provide new reasons for hope to all who are walloped by pain and want to know why God lets it happen.” – Lewis B. Smedes, Author of Mere Morality.
“Gary Watts has done something that few others dare even to try. He has written a book about suffering that both acknowledges its difficulty and yet provides perspective. I would call his book wise. First, he asks the right questions, explores answers sensitively, and uses apt illustrations and examples. Second, he creates a useful framework to approach the problem of suffering. He writes as if he is a detective on a mission to find the facts about suffering, state the facts about suffering, and change the facts about suffering.
As I read the book, I sensed I was being led through a maze that would in the end introduce me to a bigger world than the one I had known before. I was not disappointed. I have been enlarged by reading it. I will never again view or respond to suffering in the same way. Watts has written a book that engenders faith, hope, and love.” – Gerald L. Sittser, Author of A Grace Disguised.
“Gary Watts has helped us cope with the contrast between the world we want and the world we live in. He has dealt with the most-difficult philosophical problem, the problem of suffering, without ever using a philosophical term. He has used simple stories from our common lives and compelling stories from literature to probe deeply into the profound mystery of life. Watts has written clearly and without pretense but has led us into wisdom.
The structure of the book is beautiful in its simplicity. He asks the fact-finding question, the fact-stating question, and the fact-changing question. He connects these questions with the enduring values of faith, hope, and love. His apt and abundant illustrations enable us to find personal connections with problems that otherwise might seem overwhelming.
Watts is careful never to claim too much. He knows the difference between evidence and proof and never confuses the one with the other. Biblical illustrations and answers are always natural and appropriate to the conversation, never forced or contrived.
I often found myself feeling that I was listening to a late-twentieth-century C. S. Lewis speaking in the voice of middle America. Both the Englishman and the North Dakotan powerfully and persuasively use the personal and particular to explain the universal. Both Lewis and Watts offer a positive perspective that never trivializes the problems and that respects the ultimate mystery at the heart of reality.” – Jack Rogers, Author of Authority and Interpretation of the Bible: An Historical Approach.
“Not since C. S. Lewis’s Problem of Pain have I seen such a careful and sensible discussion of pain and evil. Gary Watts looks ordinary pains and problems squarely in the eye, and he discusses them with clarity and common sense. He doesn’t speak for God with easy answers, nor does he don the skeptic’s cap. Here is a voice of sanctified reason, offering pertinent and patient answers to Painful Questions.” – James R. Edwards, Author of Between the Swastika and the Sickle.