Questions for Reflection - "Conversations: Sharing Our Faith with a Skeptical World"
"How Can There Be a God When There is So Much Suffering?"

Psalm 22; Hebrews 2:10–18

  1. Which question matters more to you, "Is there a God?", or "Does God care?" Why?
  2. Talk about times when the second question has come up. What was the situation? Why is this important to know?
  3. When have you experienced someone "entering in" with you? How did it help you?
  4. Talk about the different kinds of "suffering" you've experienced. How might you categorize them? Are they all negative?
  5. Why is it important to distinguish between "pain" and "suffering"?
  6. C.S. Lewis talks in The Problem of Pain about God's love as the cause of pain. What do you think about this observation? Can you think of examples?
  7. Tim Keller reflects in The Reason for God on God entering in with our suffering as a unique quality of Christian faith. Read the scriptures above and talk about how to describe this truth in your own words.
  8. How does knowing that God suffers with you help you? Include in your reflections how this helps you enter in to others' pain.
  9. What is left unanswered to the question, "How can there be a God when there is so much suffering?" How do we come to terms with what we cannot fathom?

For further reading:
Tim Keller. The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Dutton, New York. 2008
C.S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain: How Human Suffering Raises Almost Intolerable Intellectual Problems. Collier Books, New York. 1962

Westminster Presbyterian Church
Pastors: Rev. Dr. Richard H. Thompson, Rev. Dr. Steve Miller
Rev. John Burnett, Rev. Jennifer Kates Witten
32111 Watergate Road, Westlake Village, California 91361
(818)889-1491    fax (818)889-7132
E-mail: info1@wpcwestlake.org
Please notify the church of any problems with our site.