Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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I have, in many ways, lived a very easy life. Sure, I’ve had my share of difficulties—I’ve lived, after all, in this broken world and not some perfect paradise. And while I know there isn’t a lot of value in comparing my little suffering to other people’s greater suffering, still I understand I have had it easy relative to so many people I’ve known and loved. Yet, this world being what it is, I knew it was only a matter …
In our pain we know God is not absent, but in our pain we also wonder whether God is present. Or perhaps more correctly we wonder how God is present. In times of great grief or dark uncertainty we cling to the reality that God is a loving Father who has welcomed us into his family—we are his beloved children. We dwell on the promise that he will never leave nor forsake the ones he loves—he will preserve us to …
We’ve all heard the witticisms about death and taxes as the world’s only inevitabilities and about humanity’s mortality rate continuing to stick stubbornly at exactly one hundred percent. We all know we are going to die and that we ought to prepare ourselves accordingly. But what’s equally inevitable and perhaps even more painful, is that people we love are going to die. Harder still, is that we may need to guide them or even make decisions for them in those …
We all suffer in this messy, sin-stained world. Sometimes our suffering is the direct result of our own sin and sinfulness. Sometimes it’s because others sin against us. And then sometimes we suffer through the suffering of those we love. And while it can be difficult or even gruelling to walk alongside a loved one’s illness or disease, there is something particularly trying about enduring another person’s mental illness. In Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them: Schizophrenia Through …
Without a doubt, the most impactful book I read last year was A Book of Comfort for Those in Sickness. I’m sure its significance was partly due to some medical struggles I’ve been having recently, but also simply because life is full of difficulties. We all go through difficult times in these difficult lives in this broken world, and a book like this one delivers comfort rooted in the Comforter. I’ve collected some of my favorite quotes from the book, …
I woke up far too early and feeling far too discouraged. I had spent a restless night trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable through pain. I eventually gave up, slid out of bed, went downstairs, and got my coffee brewing. I knew this would be a day in which my hands would hurt too much to get any significant writing done. I’ve got deadlines looming and words waiting to be typed, but realized I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything much. …
I asked her about her illness, her pain, her suffering. She told me what she was going through, the difficulties she had already faced, and the rough road that lay ahead. She described the lingering pain, the powerful pills, the ugly side-effects, the inability to live normal life. Then she said, almost apologetically, “But I know other people have suffered so much more.” I spoke to him about his marriage and the severe trials he had endured at the hand of …
This isn’t normally my kind of book, not the type I am typically drawn to. But I thought I might at least read a little bit just to see what it is all about. I read the first few pages, then the first few sections, then the whole thing. It just kind of happened. And I enjoyed it far more than I would have thought. In 2014, Connie Dever (wife of Mark Dever) was diagnosed with cancer. And, as so …
It is a conviction meant to quiet our minds and encourage our hearts: In some way God has a hand in our suffering. Whatever circumstances we experience can no more arise without the hand of God than a saw can cut without the hand of the carpenter. Job in his suffering did not say, “The Lord gave and the devil took away,” but, “The Lord gave and the Lord took away.” Suffering never comes our way apart from the purpose …
Christians have an interesting relationship with suffering. We follow a suffering Savior who assures us that we, like him, will have to bear a cross. We suffer the consequences of living in a world stained by sin, the consequences of our own depravity, the consequences of our association with Jesus. It is no surprise, then, that Christians have created a whole body of work dedicated to suffering. Some great Christian classics and many powerful sermons explore why we suffer and …