When Answers Aren't Enough: Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn't

by Matt Rogers

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,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310286816
• ISBN13: 9780310286813
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

When Answers Aren't Enough

I went into this reading with an incredible desire to have an explanation to the hurt we all experience. I found comfort and sound Biblical advice. Matt Rogers is a real person, with his genuine love for a hurting world oozing out of the pages. This book is peppered with sources to reach for when facing grief. I appreciated his look at the survivors of tragedy and their families and showing how they dealt with their circumstances. I felt his own personal hurt from the Virginia Tech horror. I identified with his concern when his Dad fell off the roof. I was deeply moved by his explanation of the finality of death and our need to look beyond to the promise. He is right in saying that tragedy goes from intellectual to emotional, and from theoretical to personal. Would I recommend this book? With a huge Amen. I am going to have several copies on hand. I think this is one of the most sensitive and helpful books I have come across in dealing with grief and tragedy.

Powerful faithful look at suffering and loss

When Answers Aren't Enough by Matt Rogers is the author's response to the pain and loss after the Virginia Tech shootings of one year ago today. Rogers is a pastor at a church near the campus, and one of the students killed wash is parishioner. The book starts with Rogers' anger and frustration at the senseless killings and God's apparent neglect in the face of this tragedy. He asks a common question: where is God in suffering? To find the answer he interviews a Hokie survivor, as well as a family who lost six of their children in a tragic accident. He addresses death in a way I've never seen before. When attending the funeral of a friend as well as the VT victim, he can't find the joy within him that Christians are supposed to feel when a believer goes home to Heaven. Instead, he's angry, and with good reason. Death is not natural to this life. When God created the world, death was not a part of it; it was introduced with sin. So it is natural that we feel sad, angry, and hurt when death affects us. We should feel that way, because it means that we aren't meant for this world and are looking forward to the next one. Rogers' insights on this and other issues make the book a must read. It reads almost like a longform Psalm, starting with a crying out to God in pain, seeking answers, and then praising God for His holiness and trusting in his plan. It not only offers wisdom about death and suffering, but a view on how to keep going as well.

Trying to Understand Tragedy

Matt Rogers lived through the horror of the April massacre at Virginia Tech. As a Pastor and Hokie he experienced the horror and felt the grief and inner struggle of wonder how God could let this happen. In this book he give a wonderful and heartfelt look at life and our faith when things go wrong and there is tragedy in our lives. This is a great book for anybody who ministers to those who are suffering or those who are suffering and trying to achieve some sort of reason in a world that appears to be falling apart. It is an honest and heartfelt book written by one who has obviously struggled himself to make sense of horror and grief

Raw, yet comforting

When we experience tragedy, we too often hear "answers" from people that really are not answers at all and really are not all that comforting. Matt Rogers does not attempt to give the answers, but rather communicates the hope that we have in Christ. The world is broken, and throughout the author's journey we can see it all too clearly. But the most poignant element of this book for me is the vision of the world that will come with the Kingdom of God. Throughout my reading of this book I was reminded over and again of the many reasons we have to experience God as good, even when our circumstances logically give us reason to doubt. It reminded me of the things in my own life that I often take for granted, the gifts that God has given that many times I don't even recognize as gifts. As one who was closely affected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16, this book put many things into perspective for me. I saw that it is OK to call out the evil in this world, and that this does not mean we have reason to doubt God's goodness. If you were also deeply affected by the tragedy, this book will help you sort through the tough thoughts and questions in an honest way. And for those who may not have been as close to Virginia Tech, there are many stories that Matt Rogers shares (some of tragedy, but many more of good and wonderful things) that are just as poignant. I can say with certainty that this book is for you as well. This book is raw and real. I seldom find satisfying answers to my questions during times of suffering and doubt. This book was exactly the comforting response that I have been looking for.

Powerfully Honest

"When Answer's Aren't Enough" is a powerfully honest journey into those questions we all ask, but often don't verbalize. And Matt Rogers takes us even deeper than that - digging into and embracing those difficult thoughts and emotions we can't always verbalize. He takes on questions of why some people die early or tragically, when others do not; questions that follow massive natural disasters and questions about the "right way" to respond to suffering and loss. While the tragedy at Virginia Tech provides the framework of this journey, this book takes the reader up front, close and personal, as it considers other real experiences of suffering and loss, including our own inevitable death. Only from the perspective of just how powerfully hard things in life can be, do we begin to comprehend just how powerfully good and beautiful God is, in the midst of this hurting world. And it is from here that we can begin to imagine just how good things will be one day when Christ returns and sets everything aright.