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Book Recommendation: Suffering and the Heart of God by Diane Langberg


Suffering and the Heart of God by Diane Langberg (available in audio on Scribd, Hoopla, Audible and in print at Parasource, Amazon)

Please consider reading this book. Diane Langberg has seen with her own eyes the devastation of genocide, sexual abuse at a cultural scale, trafficking, and many other traumas. And she urges Christians to be like Christ, and GO NEAR to the brokenhearted, get messy, and minister as God teaches us to minister.

Sadly, most Christians are sorely ill-equipped to love those experiencing crisis (a separating time, and intensely painful and disorienting time). Christians need to learn STAYING POWER in the alarm moments of other people's lives (Oswald Chamber)! We need to expect the sufferer to be anxious, fearful, despairing, angry - and quite possibly angry with the helper! We need to learn how to become a help and support rather than a contributor (ie Job's friends).

I've personally been quite hurt by the impatient and judgmental responses of many Christians to my various crisis points (health issues, death, abuse, failures in ministry). There has often been oversimplification or misapplication of Biblical truth into my life, which has served to deeply confuse me. However, those who have been willing to love me patiently, with sincere gentleness and lowliness (ie humility), have served to show me tiny glimpses of Christ. I earnestly pray more Christians will seek to endure long with the sufferings of others so that they may also be those who reflect Christ to those who have seen too much evil upon this earth.

Diane Langberg seeks to help us learn how to see the heart of God in the midst of deep suffering and how to be like Christ to those who endure such suffering.

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