The Hidden Face of God: Finding the Missing Door to the Father Through Lament

by Michael Card

Most of us, at some point, experience the sense of God’s absence. Michael Card says that rather than letting the distance widen, this is exactly the time for a deeper pursuit of God. The method he proposes is recovery of the profound, biblical practice of lament.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Michael Card (born April 11, 1957) is an American Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host from Franklin, Tennessee. He is best known for his contributions in contemporary Christian music, which couple folk-style melodies and instrumentation with lyrics that stem from intensive study of the Bible. Since his debut in 1981, he has sold more than 4 million albums and has written 19 No. 1 singles.He has also authored several books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner A Sacred Sorrow.

http://www.michaelcard.com/#/about-mi...

Reviews

[Heather Ferguson]

Very good- comforting, lovely. Is broken up into 40 short readings. Would be a great companion for Lent.

[Michelle]

Heartache exists in our broken world. It is not optional. But Michael reminds us that lens through which we interact with heartache is a choice as well as how we companion with others through life’s darkest corners

[Carsten Thomsen]

The subtitle is: Finding the Missing Door to the Father Through Lament.

Michael Card takes us through 40 two-three pages meditations on different aspects of the lamentations in the Bible. Michael Card is also a singer/songwriter and he has such a gift with words - beautiful well crafted sentences - I have underlinings on nearly every page in the book. Again and again his focus is on the God who are present in our suffering.

Here's one quote on the story of Lazarus:

When Jesus saw Lazarus' sister Mary in tears, initially He could do nothing but weep with her. He did not explain away the pain, did not say He had come with the answer, that He would fix everything; no, He bowed His head and allowed the tears to flow. It was not about providing answers or fixing a problem, it was about entering fully and redemptively into her suffering.

[Joyce Oliver stahle]

Wow!! This was an excellent study on lamenting. I have learned a lot. It was tough at times because Michael asked us to go deeper and search. It was a healing process. I found comfort in knowing that Jesus lamented as well and knows what it feels like.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has experienced sorrow that you can physically feel.