Where Is God When I Can't Find Him?

by David R. Johnson

Have you ever felt alone, abandoned even by God?  Or have you questioned why bad things happen to good people?  Are there times you struggle tomake sense of world events and the evil that exists in it?  Perhapsyou've asked how can God allow unspeakable acts to occur?None of us can escape the eventuality of times of trouble.  And it is duringthose times of darkness, when we find ourselves walking "the valley ofthe shadow of death," that we turn our palms and eyes upward and ask the questions that begin with the word "Why."If you sometimes doubt if God is really there, you need to read this booklet.If you have a friend who is struggling with the questions generated by human suffering, you need to share this with them.In it you will see a "behind the scenes look" at how the world actuallyworks.  The veil of secrecy between mankind and God is pulled back andwe learn important details about his dealings with us.  The truth maysurprise you or perhaps disappoint you.  But truth doesn't exist solelyto satisfy the human mind.

52 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 14, 2013

Reviews

[Nelda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author David Johnson’s Where is God When I Can’t Find Him? does a nice job of tying in the story of Job with the answer to the book’s title. I wonder, however, how a person suffering extreme grief or mental distress would find comfort with this answer. What if the person’s faith is so shattered that he wonders if God even exists, or if the Bible and the story of Job are actually inspired by God after all? What if the grieving person did not have any faith to begin with? I found myself, I thought a very faithful person, wondering these same matters after the sudden death of my mother, a cousin’s suicide, the loss of my job, followed not long afterwards by the downward spiral of my father, caregiving for him and a severely autistic grandchild, death of my father, during the same time period that a tornado destroyed our family business, and my husband’s actions nearly destroyed our marriage. Sounds a little like Satan was after me/us, huh? Well, the two T’s got me though it: time and therapy. My faith did finally recover, or nearly so. Still, while the book has some keepers and would have helped me at the time, I’m not sure it goes deeply enough. (Ah, that’s what time and therapy are for!)

I found the idea thought-provoking that God had a leash or control over Satan, at the same time allowing him to wander the earth wreaking havoc. One keeper quote from the book (for me) was “If we are ready to receive a good day, we must be ready to receive a bad day. They come from the same hand.” (However, Satan’s hand is into much of it as well.) Job’s response to God in the final paragraph of Johnson’s book rings true, basically, that Job spoke of matters he “did not understand, things too wonderful for [him] to know.” In the end, we won’t understand everything, but we can endure.

I could have done without the theatrical descriptions of Satan at the beginning of the book even if it does add interesting description and a catchy opener. I'm not sure what Satan looks like.

There were some grammatical errors in the text as my former English and proofreading eyes saw. (I really try hard not to!) Still, 95 percent of readers probably won’t see these mistakes. Among them, in my edition of the book, paragraph two on page 5: heard should be herd (the word was used correctly in the next paragraph), and page 19 “God had even give” should have been “God had even given” and same paragraph, “worth” should be exchanged for “worthy” or the sentence reworded so “worth” would have been appropriate. These are just trees or saplings in the forest (bigger picture) of the book’s important content, of course. I’m sure I could be mistaken about his mistakes, and there are mistakes in my own reviews as well!

[SYLVIA ALICE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This is the best I've read for an overview of Job. As I read it, I was thinking of half dozen people I want to buy this book for and send it to them.

[Glenda K. Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightening

This book gives a different approach to the question "why do bad things happen to good people". A quick and informative read.