I read this many years ago for someone else's benefit. You know, when you saw what they're problem was and bought a book to help them. It didn't really mean anything to me then. Of course, I was only 19 years old. Now at 42, I find myself disappointed. Actually, disappointed is too gracious of a word. Jaded, cynical at times. Sad, tired mostly. Waiting for this period of my life to be done and for things to return to normal with God. This book, I hope, was a small step in that direction.

Phillip Yancey writes with such honesty and compassion. You get the feeling that there is nothing about the hard life of faith that could shock him or make him think poorly of you. In this book he tackles three questions he says aren't admitted or discussed enough among Christians. Is God unfair? Is he silent? Is he hidden? Even though this isn't one of his better books, Yancey still wrestles with these questions well. He makes some points so well that although I had considered them before, it w...

The major part I most admired about this book is the author's honesty. There are no shallow Christian cliches or well-intended remedies for those walking through grief. Disappointment with God is real and even the most mature of Christians come to experience the great well of anger or sorrow when stripped by the harshness of life. I truly appreciate the approach Yancey took to wrestling with this disappointment with God. He takes the reader through the history of mankind, from the OT when God w

Phillip Yancey attempts to provide answers for three questions that can rattle the faith of any theist; Is God unfair? Is He silent? Is He hidden? Not through philosophy but through the Christian faith and how the Bible addresses these issues throughout the old and new testaments with a focus on the story of Job, alongside a few personal stories of the author's friends one of whom—Richard—lost his faith because of those same questions.The book is wonderfully written in a way that's organized and...

Yancy begins his book with examples of circumstances from several Christians who have suffered greatly and feel disappointed with or abandoned by God. The author chooses the situation of Richard, the person suffering the least of the examples (but a fellow author), to follow throughout the book.Using OT scriptures, Mr. Yancy tries to explain the mind of God. His attempt actually turns eerie (downright creepy) when Yancy imagines himself as God questioning in his mind whether or not man would obe...

Is God unfair? Silent? Hidden?Where is God when you need Him?I know every Christian has fought this battle when things go wrong and evil seems to reign in the form of disasters beyond our means, but as I was reading this book- Phillip took me through the Bible and shed light on God, people and His hope and dreams for us as His children.I did get to understand better- and have a new perspective on the Bible and the stories told in there, and this has prompted me to read the Bible again, by going

pg. 236 - From Job, we can learn that much more is going on out there than we may suspect. Job felt the weight of God's absence; but a look behind the curtain reveals that in one sense God had never been more present.pg. 245 - The Bible never belittles human disappointment (remember the proportion in Job - one chapter of restoration follows forty-one chapters of anguish), but it does add one key word: temporary. What we feel now, we will not always feel. Our disappointment is itself a sign, an a...

A difficult topic tackled with empathy and skill19 November 2014 The topic of 'if God is good and all powerful then why does he allow suffering' is a difficult topic at best and when you need to tackle it emphatically it becomes almost impossible. Actually, anything to do with Christianity, where you are trying to balance the esoteric truth of the faith with people's feelings is, once again, a very difficult task. Mind you, if you want to write a Christian book that explains Christianity without...

This--everybody who has ever even tangentially been connected to Christianity should read this. Yancey does a phenomenal job in this two-part book (one book but really two halves: how we are disappointed and a case study of disappointment via Job) of never glossing the real anger and pain we can feel toward God. He says he's not going to be an apologist for God, but he kinda is--and that's okay, because he does it in such a way that it's not "buck up because God's God and that's that." He acknow...

I really enjoyed this book. It deals with the topic of how sometimes (or most times) we feel like God isn't near us. We go through tough times and wonder where God is in all of that, but really, another way to view it is where are we in all of this? What is our response to God when we endure heartache or disease? Many people want to see God, to have miracles happen all the time, to have every prayer answered. Philip Yancey gives some good arguments as to why God doesn't do this. It's not because...

What a classic treatment of a generations long issue. Why me? Why doesn't God answer me? Phillip Yancey is incredibility honest and thorough in his look at a question most of us have wondered but been afraid to ask. I read this book many years ago but I was at a point in my life that I needed to read it again. I had just finished reading the Biblical book of Job so that was fresh in my mind and Yancey gives a different perspective on the theme of Job. Disappoint With God gets rather heavy and di...

Couldn't recommend more highly for anyone struggling with questions about God's character, choices, etc.

A book worth multiple readings. I went back to it because the emotion has come up several times in recent conversations and I have known it in my own life. The other day in Sunday school one of my 6th grade students asked, “Why doesn’t God do stuff today like he did in the Bible?” Having spent much of my adult life as a missionary in the developing world, I am aware that God intervenes supernaturally much more in contexts where he is just beginning to be known than he does in places like North A...

Philip Yancey tackles three problems a lot of people have with God when they're in pain: God's apparent silence, hiddenness, and unfairness.While his eventual conclusion is kind of the same as what one reaches at the end of the Book of Job--that sometimes we just don't know why suffering occurs, from a human perspective--I appreciated his respect for people who struggle and his honesty that even his exploration of this topic yields no satisfying answers for some.As to God's apparent silence or h...

Actually six stars. I have never read a book which goes so deep in the questions of pain and suffering as this book by Philip Yancy and I have read quite a few. He poses three questions which many unbelievers and suffering Christians ask. Is God unfair? Is God hidden? Is God silent? To answer these questions he gives an amazing overview of the Old Testament and ends with an examination of the book Job. He plainly shows that the Bible does not teach the prosperity gospel, namely that all sufferin...

Yancey does what I can only feebly describe as weaving hard-hitting stories of pain and suffering gathered (notably, none of which magically morph into a happy fairytale ending) and a systematic yet accessible theological/philosophical treatment of the difficult subject into a brilliant tapestry of a book. The relatively short treatise (300 odd pages), borne out of approximately half a decade of study and many more years of experiencing the subject for himself, is also accompanied by a linguisti...

It took me a while to get through this book, but I thought it was really good. If I had to describe it in one word it would be “honest”. Yancy talks about doubt and disappointment everyone faces at one point or another in a way that sounds like you’re talking with a friend over coffee. He puts words to questions that most of us have either asked or not dared to ask. It’s definitely one of the best books on theology I have read to date.

I've learnt so much from this book. There was a time in my life when I felt that it's not OK to feel disappointed with God, especially after hearing that other people around me say "have more faith" or "pray harder" or "stop complaining" or things happen because I'm not good enough, not Christian enough, not praying hard enough, not having a bigger faith, got giving my best to God. All these while I remain sceptical about how people around me define faith and prayer, as if those who are broken a...

When you wonder why bad things happen to good people, why children die, why bad people seem to succeed... you may become disappointed with God. There have been times when I have cried out, prayed for years, begged God to help and these all seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Well- that is my perspective, and that's what this book explains. It begins in the Old Testament and shows the relationship between God, his actions and the faith people had in him. It helps you understand God is BIG BIG BIG a...

I read this book (my first by this author) after a friend had questions about it. Somewhat in the same vein as Charles Swindoll's "The Mystery of God's Will" and James Dobson's "When God Doesn't Make Sense", Yancey discusses questions all Christians eventually wrestle with, such as "Why are some prayers answered and others not"?, "What is the meaning/purpose of undeserved suffering"?, and "Why does God seem far away at times"?. A lot of the discussion centers around the book of Job, with many qu...