How to handle suffering
The "Hospitality of Abraham" by Andrei Rublev. The three angels symbolize the Trinity, which is rarely depicted directly in art. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In Torn to Heal: God ’s Good Purpose in Suffering , Mike Leake offers a “bare bones theology of suffering.” He does this by reflecting on the idea that “God uses the tearing of suffering to provide healing—a healing that goes far beyond the wound that is claiming our immediate attention.” He begins with examples from the lives of Abraham , Hosea , Gideon , Joseph, and Job. He shows that God fulfills his promises, but does so in ways that seem (to us, anyway) counterintuitive. Then, in the heart of the book, he shows two ways Christians can get things seriously wrong: dualism and stoicism . Both ways of thinking are faulty, both are partly correct, and both come in semi- Christian versions that run rampant in the church and do great harm. The dualistic Christian acknowledges that evil is something to stri...