Communicating Christ Incarnate

I think I began reading Where is God? with the wrong expectations. I am a sucker for anyone who attempts to tackle the hard questions that people ask, that Christians and the Bible don’t always have all the answers for. So to read a book tackling the question of where is God?, I’m all in, excited to see how another author may take a look at such a question, when it comes to suffering and hard times so many of us endure going through life.

However, I expected a methodical, theological and exegetical explanation of Scripture on suffering. Instead, I felt like I had paid the very cheap price of $22.99 to meet with a therapist to have him pat me on the back and “there, there, it will be ok,” rather than giving me any real concrete answers to the question of where is God? (Note: I received this book for free.) Now, I’ve never read any other Townsend books, so perhaps I’m simply not accustomed to his writing style, as I assume his other books are very similar in voice. But the book didn’t do much for me.

A few other things I really didn’t like about the book…

• The book’s timing seems opportunistic. With the economic downturn we’ve experienced over the past 2 years, there are many people who have attempted to take advantage of the self-help genre, as so many people are looking for answers to the tough situations they find themselves in because of the economy. And I feel like Townsend saw an opportunity to take advantage of that. Does that make it wrong to right this book at this time? Perhaps not. But I’d have more respect for the book and the author if I knew it was stemmed from, for example, someone who has gone through a hard time, and wrote a book of hope to share with others.
• Townsend at times implies in the chapter “The God who suffers with me” that God is in fact experiencing and enduring the same pain and suffering people endure going through abuse and hard times. However, this is not Scripturally true. And I don’t see the value in lying and telling someone God is suffering with them while they suffer… just to make them feel better. (p. 80-81)
• Townsend’s overall interpretation of Scripture seems somewhat misled. For example, on p. 90 Townsend refers to the story of Joseph in Genesis stating, “There is no way Joseph could have foreseen God working behind the scenes at the time of his suffering.” But making such a claim that there is NO way Joseph could have had faith in God and believed God was working behind the scenes, even if Joseph had not yet seen any positive results from suffering… we simply cannot make such a suggestion based on Scripture, and in fact I believe the story implies quite the opposite–Joseph trusted in God’s sovereign plan for his life, and thus pressed on.
• Another example on p. 95, Townsend states “The Bible affirms that God uses hard times to make us better, even going so far as to teach us to be happy about our circumstances,” then quoting Romans 5:3-5. When I first read this, my first reaction was to say, NO, in fact, the Bible teaches us to rejoice/have joy even while enduring suffering. But then a few sentences later, Townsend states, “…the verse doesn’t say that we must feel happy when we hurt.” So in fact, I agreed with him, but the way he decided to setup this idea was confusing, contradicting himself within a matter of sentences. As a result, I lost trust in the author as a reliable source on the subject.

A few things I liked about the book…

• The Appendix Townsend includes in the back lists all of the books I thought this book would compare to on the subject of suffering and endurance. So I recommend reviewing the list for further and deeper reading.
• Although I don’t like this book as an overall source on the subject, I would be free to give the book out to someone who was going through a hard time or some kind of suffering in their life to bring them some guidance along with my own words of encouragement.

Overall the book was just OK. Nothing to write home about. And very shallow, surface-level, fluffy content. But perhaps that’s what Townsend was going for.