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Does God Always Get What God Wants?: An Exploration of God's Activity in a Suffering World
Tim's wife, Anne, died of breast cancer at the age of forty-nine, having battled against the disease for more than six years. Her suffering had a profound influence on their lives and that of their church, and raised challenging - If "God is in control," does that mean God is to blame for suffering? - Why did God not heal Anne? - Is Anne's death what God wanted to happen? - Does prayer make any difference? - What is God doing about evil? People's experience of suffering causes them to examine the kind of God they believe in, the nature of the universe God made, and God's activity in the world. This book explores all three aspects and responds constructively to the complex issues that the above questions pose--and provides powerful reasons for confidence in the firm Christian hope.
186 pages, Paperback
Published March 16, 2018
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June 5, 2018
Is there anything God cannot do? If so, then why does God allow people to suffer? That is the great conundrum, one that causes many to walk away from religious faith. The assumption is that God is all powerful. That there is nothing God cannot do. If that is true, then shouldn't God do what God can do, and alleviate suffering? There are those who argue that this suffering is the result of free will, but what about those who say that God controls everything? Ultimately this is a question of God's character.
There are those who believe that there are somethings God cannot do. Tom Oord has argued that because God is love, and love is non-coercive, God cannot prevent suffering. Tim Reddish takes a similar position in his book Does God Always Get what God Wants? The book is written with the death of his wife from cancer as the point of departure. Reddish, whose original training is in the sciences, brings that training into conversation with his later training in theology. He is now a pastor serving across the Detroit River near Windsor, Ontario.
This book is part theodicy, part theological treatise, part pastoral reflection, and part memoir. He starts with his own story, the story of walking with his wife through her cancer that eventuated in her death. With this as the starting point, he moves to a reflection on the Trinity, finding a sense of hope in God's experience of suffering. That leads to a Christological reflection drawing on the idea of the Crucified God. He draws upon the work of Moltmann, but also his mentor Douglas John Hall, who has developed a thought-provoking theology of the Cross. He writes that it is only in the Christ -event that we "can truly understand the meaning of 'God is love.'" (p. 41).
With this theological foundation, Reddish the scientist/pastor explores the concept of natural evil -- like hurricanes and volcanoes. Why is the world the way it is? As a scientist he understands that things like tectonic plates that lead to volcanoes and earthquakes are required for life to exist. We seem to understand these kinds of realities, but there are others that give us greater concern. That is when suffering become personal -- when God doesn't seem to get what God wants, and we don't understand why. Here is where we get to the question of God's control or lack thereof. This is why I can't go with the straight Reformed vision of God. We assume that if someone can stop evil from occurring, they should do so. In fact, we hold people liable when they don't. So, why not God? Thus, the question of whether God always gets what God wants. If this is true, then what is God doing about evil? His belief is that God is working through it with us. God is present with us in the midst of suffering, encouraging and supporting. There is a chapter on the nature of miracles, understanding them as fitting within the world and not interventionist. The idea here is that God is in the business of sharing power with us. Thus, the role of prayer -- it is a form of partnership with God. We never, he declares, "pray alone."
This is, of course, a story about one who suffered from cancer and then died. Thus, the final chapter involves letting go. There is a time to cry and a time to celebrate. This is the life we live in the presence of the God who doesn't always gets what God wants, and thus neither do we.
The book is written for a general audience, but brings theology into conversation with real life concerns. I believe this book should prove helpful to those wondering why God doesn't fix everything. Perhaps God can't. And that's okay, for God is present with us in all things, including our suffering.
There are those who believe that there are somethings God cannot do. Tom Oord has argued that because God is love, and love is non-coercive, God cannot prevent suffering. Tim Reddish takes a similar position in his book Does God Always Get what God Wants? The book is written with the death of his wife from cancer as the point of departure. Reddish, whose original training is in the sciences, brings that training into conversation with his later training in theology. He is now a pastor serving across the Detroit River near Windsor, Ontario.
This book is part theodicy, part theological treatise, part pastoral reflection, and part memoir. He starts with his own story, the story of walking with his wife through her cancer that eventuated in her death. With this as the starting point, he moves to a reflection on the Trinity, finding a sense of hope in God's experience of suffering. That leads to a Christological reflection drawing on the idea of the Crucified God. He draws upon the work of Moltmann, but also his mentor Douglas John Hall, who has developed a thought-provoking theology of the Cross. He writes that it is only in the Christ -event that we "can truly understand the meaning of 'God is love.'" (p. 41).
With this theological foundation, Reddish the scientist/pastor explores the concept of natural evil -- like hurricanes and volcanoes. Why is the world the way it is? As a scientist he understands that things like tectonic plates that lead to volcanoes and earthquakes are required for life to exist. We seem to understand these kinds of realities, but there are others that give us greater concern. That is when suffering become personal -- when God doesn't seem to get what God wants, and we don't understand why. Here is where we get to the question of God's control or lack thereof. This is why I can't go with the straight Reformed vision of God. We assume that if someone can stop evil from occurring, they should do so. In fact, we hold people liable when they don't. So, why not God? Thus, the question of whether God always gets what God wants. If this is true, then what is God doing about evil? His belief is that God is working through it with us. God is present with us in the midst of suffering, encouraging and supporting. There is a chapter on the nature of miracles, understanding them as fitting within the world and not interventionist. The idea here is that God is in the business of sharing power with us. Thus, the role of prayer -- it is a form of partnership with God. We never, he declares, "pray alone."
This is, of course, a story about one who suffered from cancer and then died. Thus, the final chapter involves letting go. There is a time to cry and a time to celebrate. This is the life we live in the presence of the God who doesn't always gets what God wants, and thus neither do we.
The book is written for a general audience, but brings theology into conversation with real life concerns. I believe this book should prove helpful to those wondering why God doesn't fix everything. Perhaps God can't. And that's okay, for God is present with us in all things, including our suffering.
August 4, 2018
Such a timely book. In the face of so much suffering in our personal lives and in the world, how can we find comfort in the statement so many Christians make, without even stopping to consider its ramifications: "Well, God is in control"? In this thought-provoking, hopeful, and personal book, Tim Reddish delves into a much more believable and comforting response to suffering. I was drawn to read it partly because of his personal story of how his wife (in her 40s), who was full of faith and love for God, suffered and died from cancer. My mother, a loving pastor's wife, also died of cancer in her 40s. I grieved long over the intense suffering of someone so fully devoted to God, as well as feeling my own acute loss, while believing God had chosen to take her from us for his own mysterious reasons. But along with the grief, I cherished the memory of the wonder and joy on her face when death, that she had resisted so long, finally took her.
Since then my spiritual journey has taken me, partly through books like this one, into deeper, wider, higher places of faith and hope in our relational, three-in-one God of love who created us with genuine free will, who has created an open, full-of-possibilities world, where randomness can and does occur, and has not determined or even necessarily "foreknown" all that will happen--good and bad--in the future.
The theodicy of which Reddish writes, has ramifications for prayer. And, in fact, I was drawn to Tim Reddish's book also because he and I both contributed essays on prayer, in the book, Uncontrolling Love: Essays Exploring the Love of God, with Introductions by Thomas Jay Oord. Reddish seems to embrace Oord's open theology but stops short of Oord's "Essential Kenosis." Reddish, a scientist and a Presbyterian minister holds to self-emptying kenosis and he writes that "God is sovereign over his sovereignty." This is easier for me to accept, especially as Reddish does definitely not teach predestination. Reddish also uses the term "omni-competence" rather than omnipotence, which he defines as "God can deal wisely with any circumstance that arises" and "the total freedom God has to use his power to accomplish God's creative and redemptive purposes." Since I personally come from a deep-rooted Wesleyan tradition, but find myself now in a Presbyterian church, I grapple with these things. And "Does God Always Get What God Wants" has helped me with this grappling, and also with the question of how to explain the existence of evil. As a scientist as well as a theologian, Reddish concludes, "I think the way forward is to embrace chaos and chance as morally neutral features of God's good creation, for nothing God has made is inherently evil."
The author affirms what I believe and experience more and more: that our God is always and everywhere with us!--rejoicing with us in our joys and suffering with us in our trials. He is not watching us from afar as we go through trials, to see if we'll have faith, keep faith, be faithful... Instead, Reddish writes, "The whole Godhead suffers to bring shalom to all of creation..." and "God doesn't let suffering have the last word. Instead God responds to every situation in ways that promote growth and healing."
This book is solid biblically, well-reasoned, experiential, and gleans from Christian tradition. It motivates me to be willing to open my heart more and enter more fully into the places of people's suffering, because that is where God is and I want to be where God is--working alongside him to bring the shalom of God's kingdom more and more into this world.
Since then my spiritual journey has taken me, partly through books like this one, into deeper, wider, higher places of faith and hope in our relational, three-in-one God of love who created us with genuine free will, who has created an open, full-of-possibilities world, where randomness can and does occur, and has not determined or even necessarily "foreknown" all that will happen--good and bad--in the future.
The theodicy of which Reddish writes, has ramifications for prayer. And, in fact, I was drawn to Tim Reddish's book also because he and I both contributed essays on prayer, in the book, Uncontrolling Love: Essays Exploring the Love of God, with Introductions by Thomas Jay Oord. Reddish seems to embrace Oord's open theology but stops short of Oord's "Essential Kenosis." Reddish, a scientist and a Presbyterian minister holds to self-emptying kenosis and he writes that "God is sovereign over his sovereignty." This is easier for me to accept, especially as Reddish does definitely not teach predestination. Reddish also uses the term "omni-competence" rather than omnipotence, which he defines as "God can deal wisely with any circumstance that arises" and "the total freedom God has to use his power to accomplish God's creative and redemptive purposes." Since I personally come from a deep-rooted Wesleyan tradition, but find myself now in a Presbyterian church, I grapple with these things. And "Does God Always Get What God Wants" has helped me with this grappling, and also with the question of how to explain the existence of evil. As a scientist as well as a theologian, Reddish concludes, "I think the way forward is to embrace chaos and chance as morally neutral features of God's good creation, for nothing God has made is inherently evil."
The author affirms what I believe and experience more and more: that our God is always and everywhere with us!--rejoicing with us in our joys and suffering with us in our trials. He is not watching us from afar as we go through trials, to see if we'll have faith, keep faith, be faithful... Instead, Reddish writes, "The whole Godhead suffers to bring shalom to all of creation..." and "God doesn't let suffering have the last word. Instead God responds to every situation in ways that promote growth and healing."
This book is solid biblically, well-reasoned, experiential, and gleans from Christian tradition. It motivates me to be willing to open my heart more and enter more fully into the places of people's suffering, because that is where God is and I want to be where God is--working alongside him to bring the shalom of God's kingdom more and more into this world.
July 24, 2020
Tim Reddish does an excellent job of exploring the question of how the Triune Creator relates to his human creation during times of suffering and grief. The book is almost a systematic theology of how to understand the nature of God in light of what humans experience in the world posing the question of whether humanity is responsible for our dismal circumstances or whether there is an evil force present in opposition to God's plan for salvation. There are many times during the reading of this book that I had to challenge myself in how I read scripture and ask myself whether God was working out His plan in the world and my life, especially, when I identify with the grief Tim experienced due to the death of his wife because of cancer. Tim has an understanding of what it is like to lose someone he loved and asks God hard questions to better equip his desire for a future hope in Christ.
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