Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering is a book that will make the reader both think deeply about the nature and purpose of pain and feel deeply God’s goodness and sovereignty in suffering. In this thorough consideration of the matter of sorrow, grief, and pain, Tim Keller addresses an anthropology or sociology of suffering by analyzing how different cultures view and handle hardships. He also considers suffering from a philosophical standpoint, digging deeply into the problem of evil. He then lays out a theology of suffering, demonstrating how God works in the midst of misery and how God himself clothed himself in flesh to experience unimaginably profound pain for our sake. Finally, he describes the practical disciplines of walking, weeping, trusting, praying, thinking, thanking, loving, and hoping through the fiery furnace of life’s trials. 

Key Principles

Keller expounds upon several key principles throughout this book. First of all, Keller explains how poorly postmodernism has prepared us for suffering. According to Keller, “it is because the meaning of life in the United States is the pursuit of pleasure and personal freedom that suffering is so traumatic for Americans. All other cultures make the highest purpose of life something besides individual happiness and comfort.”[1] Our individualistic, secular, postmodern culture sees this material life as all there is, and if that is true then there can be no higher purpose to pain; it is merely a pesky interruption to the pursuit of happiness. Keller goes on to explain that Christianity is the worldview that is best equipped to address suffering: “Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.”[2]

Secondly, Keller emphasizes multiple times throughout the book that God himself suffered. Christ came to bear the curse of sin and shame that we deserved. He endured more intense physical and spiritual pain than we can imagine, and so he is truly able to empathize with us. It is this reality of the “Suffering Sovereign” that enables us to endure hardships with hope and honesty: “Because suffering is both just and unjust, we can cry out and pour out our grief, yet without the toxic additive of bitterness. Because God is both sovereign and suffering, we know our suffering always has meaning even though we cannot see it. We can trust him without understanding it all.”[3]

Another key truth is that suffering has a purpose. In fact, it has many. One way people profit from pain is that “troubled times awaken them out of their haunted sleep of spiritual self-sufficiency into a serious search for the divine.”[4] Keller goes on to quote C. S. Lewis, who aptly and succinctly said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.”[5] When things are going well, it is easy to forget God. When tragedy strikes, we are made inescapably aware of our own fragility and neediness. When we reach the end of ourselves, we are forced to cry out for help to Someone greater than ourselves. That is a very good place to be, and often it is only hardship that can bring us so humbly to our knees and open our eyes to the presence and provision of our Good, Good Father. Keller puts it another way later on by saying, “Almost no one grows into greatness or finds God without suffering, without pain coming into our lives like smelling salts to wake us up to all sorts of facts about life and our own hearts to which we were blind.”[6]

Similarly, Keller says that “suffering poses a responsibility and presents an opportunity. You must not waste your sorrows.”[7] Both H. Norman Wright’s The Complete Guide to Crisis & Trauma Counseling and Kristi Kanel’s A Guide to Crisis Intervention mention that the Chinese symbol for “crisis” is a combination of the words “danger” and “opportunity.” Suffering presents the opportunity to grow in faith, but the danger is that it can also result in a person turning away from God altogether. Keller emphasizes that we have a choice in how we walk through difficult times; we can choose to resentfully run away from God or lean into his loving arms.

Another purpose of suffering is that is forces us to reorder our loves. Keller asserts the idea that the problem is not that we love other things or other people too much; the problem is that we don’t love God enough. Suffering shatters our idols by exposing their insufficiency and powerlessness. To use Keller’s words, “If anything matters more to you than God you are placing yourself and your heart into something external. Only if you make God matter the most—which means only if you glorify him and give him the glory—will you have a safe life.”[8] Suffering separates the fleeting from the eternal. It separates the dross from the gold.

Strengths and Weaknesses

In my opinion, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering has many more strengths than it has weaknesses. One of its strengths is the general depth and richness of its theological truth. As already stated, Keller describes God as both suffering and sovereign. In his suffering, he is able to identify with us. In his sovereignty, we can trust him even when our suffering seems senseless. Keller also demonstrates an acute awareness of how our culture impacts our approach to suffering. Lastly and most helpfully, he offers practical advice on how to handle hardships when they inevitably arise.

I enjoyed the layout of the book, from cultural analysis to theological study to practical application. Initially, it was helpful to better grasp why we, culturally, struggle so much with suffering. Keller thoroughly addresses why we so often ask, “Why would a good God allow such terrible things to happen?” I found it fascinating to dig deeper into why our postmodern culture asks that question (from a position of doubting either God’s goodness or God’s existence) to begin with and how even asking the question produces a “boomerang effect”: “The very basis for disbelief in God—a certainty about evil and the moral obligation not to commit it—dissolves if there truly is no God.”[9] We sense that some things are bad and just should not be, but in doing so we are assuming there is a moral absolute that determines right and wrong. Additionally, we are ill equipped to handle hardship because of our deeply engrained individualism. I had never really given much thought to the reality that pain is expected and perhaps even desirable and productive in other cultures, while we balk at difficulties and run from adversity. I had never seriously considered that my tendency towards fear or indignation in suffering was largely a result of my culture’s messages to “find what feels good” and “do whatever makes you happy.”

I also appreciated his theological examination of suffering and how it is central to the gospel. God is not a distant divine being who looks aloofly upon our affliction. Instead, he felt all the sensations of physical anguish as well as the spiritual turmoil of literally being godforsaken. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Incredibly, God used the ultimate act of evil and pain, the bloody execution of his own son, to bring about our healing and restoration. As Keller puts it, “God allows evil just enough space so it will defeat itself.”[10] Even evil, pain, and suffering are subservient to him.

Lastly, the book is heavily laden with practical application and life-altering truths. Keller offers many insights that have been enlightening and useful for me personally but will also be helpful as I seek to minister to hurting hearts. I appreciated the way he describes suffering as something through which you must walk alongside God. As Keller puts it, “Walking with God through suffering means treating God as God and as there, as present. Walking is something nondramatic, rhythmic—it consists of steady, repeated actions you can keep up in a sustained way for a long time.”[11] It’s a process. It’s a journey. We don’t have to be or do anything extraordinary; he just calls us to be faithful—to put one foot in front of the other. Additionally, Keller compares hardship to a gymnasium (it exposes weaknesses and helps build strength) and a furnace (it burns away impurities and refines).

I would only point out two weaknesses in the book. First of all, although I enjoyed it in its entirety, I thought it was repetitive at times and could have been condensed into a more concise work. Additionally, some of the philosophical sections felt like drudgery to trudge through, so I think it would have been better if Keller had focused less on the somewhat cold philosophical and sociological elements and more quickly gotten into how to help a suffering person confront their circumstances and lean into the Lord. I think there is a very real possibility someone in the midst of grief would either skip directly to Part Three or give up on the book altogether as an overly objective and excessively intellectual work.  

Personal Application

Keller provides a plethora of potential personal applications. I felt like I drew nearer to the heart of God through reading this book, and I think the Lord used it to dig up and dig out much of the residual ache from my recent and past suffering. I learned a lot about God’s character and feel with much more certainty that I can trust in his goodness and sovereignty, which is something I’ve really struggled with after a difficult few years. I appreciate Keller quoting John Newton in saying, “Everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be needful that he withholds.” Similarly, in relating the story of Joseph, Keller says, “The Joseph story tells us that very often God does not give us exactly what we ask for. Instead he gives us what we would have asked for if we had known everything he knows. We must never assume that we know enough to mistrust God’s ways or be bitter against what he has allowed.”[12] That was very convicting for me, as I so often pout or even rail against him when I don’t get “my way.” It was a good reminder that his ways and his thoughts are exceedingly higher and better than my own (Isaiah 55:9).

Another essential personal takeaway is how Keller explains how God uses suffering. As stated above, one of Keller’s key points was that suffering is not meaningless; it has a purpose. It humbles us and shows us our fragility; it reveals the good things in our lives that we have allowed to become our gods; it strengthens our relationship with God by teaching us to genuinely love and rely upon him and not just enjoy him for his gifts; it drives us to God in prayer; finally, suffering helps to mature us and grow us in wisdom, making us better fit to minister to others in their pain.[13] I will cling to these truths and remind myself of these blessings that are the result of suffering as I walk through difficult times in the future.

This book also did a thorough, if not somewhat painful, job of exposing some of the idols of my heart. I do struggle with letting God’s good gifts become my gods. I have taken some relatively recent losses so hard because I had grown to love that thing or that person more than God. And God is a jealous God; he won’t relent until he has my whole heart. I was very convicted by this statement: “If you live for and love anything more than God then your life is always going to be like a tossing sea. You will be restless, without peace. If you love anything more than God, you are always going to be in anxiety about it.”[14] But, with him in his rightful place on the throne of my heart, I don’t have to be restless or anxious, because “[he] keep[s] in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon [him]” (Isaiah 26:3).

Ministry Application

As Keller emphasizes, one of the purposes of pain is to prepare us for ministry. He puts it perfectly by saying, “There is no way to know who you really are until you are tested. There is no way to really empathize and sympathize with other suffering people unless you have suffered yourself. There is no way to really learn how to trust God until you are drowning.”[15] In a very real sense, we need suffering in order to become mature ministers of the gospel.

A main ministry application I will take from this book is Keller’s explanation of the different aspects of the experience of affliction. Understanding these aspects will help me better understand what sufferers are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. First, he says that suffering is isolating: “Severe suffering turns you into a different person and some of the people that you once felt affinity for no longer look the same to you” and no longer understand you.[16] There is also an element of implosion; pain can turn us inward and tend to make us self-absorbed. Next, there is a sense of guilt and hopelessness. Then there is anger. Finally, there is the temptation to allow the pain to become a part of our identity for which we are proud and do not want to let go; we are tempted to pet our pain and stroke our sorrow and self-pity instead of doing the hard work of working through it.

Overall, I found Walking with God through Pain and Suffering to be profoundly impactful for my life and ministry. I hope to allow these truths to sink in more and more and truly transform my outlook on suffering. I would highly recommend this book to anyone walking through a difficult season and will definitely keep it as a reference as I seek to speak the truth in love to those who are hurting.