The Question That Never Goes Away Quotes

“One more, final question came from the audience on my last night in Newtown, and it was the one I most did not want to hear: “Will God protect my child?”
I stayed silent for what seemed like minutes. More than anything I wanted to answer with authority, “Yes! Of course God will protect you. Let me read you some promises from the Bible.” I knew, though, that behind me on the same platform twenty-six candles were flickering in memory of victims, proof that we have no immunity from the effects of a broken planet. My mind raced back to Japan, where I heard from parents who had lost their children to a tsunami in a middle school, and forward to that very morning when I heard from parents who had lost theirs to a shooter in an elementary school.
At last I said, “No, I’m sorry, I can’t promise that.” None of us is exempt. We all die, some old, some tragically young. God provides support and solidarity, yes, but not protection—at least not the kind of protection we desperately long for. On this cursed planet, even God suffered the loss of a Son.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“On a small scale, person-to-person, Jesus encountered the kinds of suffering common to all of us. And how did he respond? Avoiding philosophical theories and theological lessons, he reached out with healing and compassion. He forgave sin, healed the afflicted, cast out evil, and even overcame death.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“Those who observe suffering are tempted to reject God; those who experience it often cannot give up on God, their solace and their agony.” The presence of so many in church on a wintry night proved his point. “You can protest against the evil in the world only if you believe in a good God,” Volf also said. “Otherwise the protest doesn’t make sense.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“For us who are Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof positive that love is stronger than hate, that life is stronger than death, that light is stronger than darkness, that laughter and joy, and compassion and gentleness and truth, all these are so much stronger than their ghastly counterparts.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“It was not pastoral teaching, or small group fellowship, or worship services, or books of theology — rather, they mentioned suffering. “People said they grew more during seasons of loss, pain, and crisis than they did at any other time.” We discover the hidden value of suffering only by suffering — not as part of God’s original or ultimate plan for us, but as a redemptive transformation that takes place in the midst of trial.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“The only effective antidote to the wickedness around us is to live differently from this moment forward.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Followers of Jesus stake their claim on the firm belief that God will one day heal the planet of pain and death. Until that day arrives, the case against God must rely on incomplete evidence. We cannot really reconcile our pain-wracked world with a loving God because what we experience now is not the same as what God intends. Jesus himself prayed that God's will "be done, on earth as it is in heaven," a prayer that will not be fully answered until evil and suffering are finally defeated.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“recall Gandhi’s remark that if you take the principle “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” to its logical conclusion, eventually the whole world will go blind and toothless.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Never do I see Jesus lecturing people on the need to accept blindness or lameness as an expression of God’s secret will; rather, he healed them.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Jesus did not eliminate evil; he revealed a God willing, at immense cost, to forgive it and to heal its damage.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“From Jesus I learn that God is on the side of the sufferer.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? A pessimist says, ‘Oh dear, things can’t possibly get any worse.’ An optimist says, ‘Don’t be so sad. Things can always get worse.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“The presence of another caring person doubles the amount of pain a person can endure,”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Virtually every passage on suffering in the New Testament deflects the emphasis from cause to response. Although we cannot grasp the master plan of the universe, which allows for so much evil and pain (the Why? question), we can nevertheless respond in two important ways. First, we can find meaning in the midst of suffering. Second, we can offer real and practical help to those in need.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Faith, I’ve concluded, means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“The question {WHY}, though, never goes away-- not for me, not for anybody. We keep groping toward light while living in darkness.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offences willingly, comfort the afflicted, pray for the living and the dead.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Theologian Hart goes on to note a secret irony hidden in the arguments of the skeptics: “They would never have occurred to consciences that had not in some profound way been shaped by the moral universe of a Christian culture.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“The redemptive way goes through pain, not around it.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“Always, no matter the circumstances, we have the assurance of “Immanuel,” which simply means “God with us.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“Virtually every passage on suffering in the New Testament deflects the emphasis from cause to response.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“All suffering is suffering. As C. S. Lewis said, there is no such thing as “the sum of the world’s suffering,” an abstraction of the philosophers. There are simply individual people who hurt. And who wonder why God permits it.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“The storm laid bare an unmistakable truth. More and more Christians have decided that the only way to reconquer America is through service. The faith no longer travels by the word. It moves by the deed.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“As a counterbalance to the list of seven deadly sins, the church in the Middle Ages came up with a list of seven works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captive, bury the dead.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away

“we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” And “he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Contrary to nature’s rule of “survival of the fittest,” we humans measure civilization by how we respond to the most vulnerable and the suffering.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

“Rather, God has commissioned us as agents of intervention in the midst of a hostile and broken world.”
― Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away: Finding Meaning in the Midst of Suffering