When Answers Aren’t Enough (Amy)
Matt Rogers
218 pages
Zondervan Publishers
From the Publisher:
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, Where is God in all of this?The cliché-ridden, pat answers rang hollow. In this beautifully written reflection, Rogers illumines the path for experiencing God as truly good when life isn’t.
My thoughts:
This is beautifully written book that ponders the question that most of us have asked at some point in our life. How can God be good and loving when bad things like the events at Virginia Tech happen?
We go through the year after the tragedy with Matt Rogers.
In the first section of the book, which is titled A Heavy, Sinking, Sadness: Embracing The World That Is , the author recounts the shock, horror and then the tremendous pain and grief of the people connected with Virginia Tech. This section brings sharply into focus the fact that life is finite. A person can literally be here one moment and gone the next. This is a very heavy section but then tragedy and grief are very heavy subjects.
The next section is called Echoes of Eden: Embracing the World that Was. In this section we walk with Matt as he embraces the gifts all around him. The gift of creation, the kindness of people. He travels to Colorado and Japan in an effort to distance himself from the tragedy. Both trips are through the kindness of people. His experience with nature is healing and draws him to God. His conclusion is that:
Nature reminds us of the world that was, but that’s just it: that world is no more. Even the leftovers are infected. It is not enough to embrace the world that is, nor to remember that which was. My need, the great need of us all, is to know that there is a better world to come. -When Answers Aren’t Enough- page 146
This leads us into the final section of the book entitled Breathless Expectation: Imagining the World that Will Be where the author discusses Heaven and the fact that we are caught between two worlds. We live here and now and we suffer. But, as Christians, we wait in joyful hope for the restoration of all things and the return of Christ.
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.(5/5)
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