In Depth:  suffering

All topics
The UK riots: the need for absolute moral clarity

The UK riots: the need for absolute moral clarity
Ryan Burton King Ryan Burton King

On 29 July 2024, a knife rampage at a holiday dance class left three little girls dead and an additional 10 people, including several children, fighting for their lives.

It is always paramount, no less in moments of extreme grief and inconsolable anguish, that we labour to appropriately respond rather than aggressively react. If we lose sobriety of mind and self-control in body, then we may lose all respectability in our actions. The alleged perpetrator was captured and arrested, alive, and has now been charged. The community should have been allowed to grieve in peace, and the justice system permitted to follow usual due process.

Two mums, terminal cancer, shared tears - and gospel hope
women in mission

Two mums, terminal cancer, shared tears - and gospel hope
Naomi Dawson Naomi Dawson

For two years, Chloe and I stood in the same playground, at the same time, picking our daughters up from the same class and yet our conversation and friendship never went much further than a brief chat.

At times in those first few years it felt like I was back at school myself, wondering how everyone knew each other and how on earth I could make friends.

Helping the persecuted

Helping the persecuted
Jordan Brown Jordan Brown

Web Review Open Doors UK

Read review
Letter

Clinical depression
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024

Dear Editor,

Thank you to the two brave people who shared their experiences of clinical depression. One can easily hear how the experience of depression was accompanied by a sense of loneliness and isolation from the One who never leaves us. I long for the day when people do not experience either stigma within the church or shame from the self for experiencing psychological distress or mental illness. 

How does clinical depression relate to a Biblical faith?

How does clinical depression relate to a Biblical faith?

Two readers of en share their experiences and what they have learned

Depression – one ordinary man’s experience...

Tender mercy: a grief observed

Tender mercy: a grief observed
Julia Jones

Book Review NEAR TO THE BROKEN HEARTED: The Comfort of Jesus in the Grief of Losing a Child

Read review
Faithful ministry: enduring suffering not dishing it out

Faithful ministry: enduring suffering not dishing it out
David Shaw David Shaw

Paul’s letter to the Galatians might not be the first place we turn to for a model of pastoral ministry. It might even be the last place we’d think to go, given its dense theological arguments and Paul’s exasperated tone. And yet in many ways it is a shining example and defence of authentic ministry.

You can see that best in the final passage – Galatians 6:11-18. In those climactic verses, much of the letter’s argument is brought to bear on the question of how true gospel ministry can be distinguished from false and fleshly ministry.

When sorrows like sea billows roll

When sorrows like sea billows roll
Brad Franklin

On the sudden death of his wife Megan, Brad Franklin was left a single father of seven children. Life became harder, and the grief almost overwhelming. This article is an extract from his recently published book.

I sit writing this, and I’m three and a half years on from Megan’s death.

Iran: weekly questioning ‘became normal’ and I was threatened often

Iran: weekly questioning ‘became normal’ and I was threatened often
Iain Taylor Iain Taylor

Dabrina Bet-Tamraz, a Christian Iranian- Assyrian rights activist, was born in Iran in 1985. In this interview with en’s Iain Taylor she reflects on recent events there and tells her story. She is no longer in Iran.

en: Can you describe your experiences with the Iranian Morality Police?

Cyclone Freddy: missionary’s anguish

Cyclone Freddy: missionary’s anguish
Iain Taylor Iain Taylor

An evangelical missionary in Mozambique says storms and rain were ‘incessant’ and poorly-constructed houses around her were ‘flooding and collapsing’ as a tropical storm battered the country.

Cyclone Freddy, the longest-ever recorded tropical cyclone, which has returned several times, ripped through the country and neighbouring Malawi with over 600 dead and countless people missing, injured or made homeless.

Pray like a child with your child in tears
helping children find faith

Pray like a child with your child in tears
Ed Drew Ed Drew

When my child is crying, my prayers are different.

They have a problem and I can’t fix it. I take it to our Father in heaven. He loves my child more than I do. He has all power at His disposal. The words I pray feel like they really matter.

Be like ‘Hopeful’ to your friends in despair

Be like ‘Hopeful’ to your friends in despair
Dave Burke Dave Burke

Suicide is a serious problem. According to recently released figures 5,583 people ended their life in 2021. About 20% of the population have entertained thoughts of suicide at some time in their life, so how can we be prepared to help?

John Bunyan explores this in his spiritual Pilgrim’s classic, Progress. Christian is imprisoned with his friend Hopeful in the castle of Giant Despair. The giant beats them senseless and throws them into a dark, stinking cell.

C.S. Lewis: is pain really God’s megaphone to us?

C.S. Lewis: is pain really God’s megaphone to us?
David Shaw David Shaw

Let’s attempt two risky things in one article: first, we’re going to delve into the detail of the book of Revelation and, second, we’re going to disagree with C.S. Lewis.

Lewis famously said: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ There is some truth in that, of course. Suffering screams at us and it might be a big part of how you came to faith.

Losing parents drew me closer to the Lord

Losing parents drew me closer to the Lord
en staff, Evangelical Alliance

An evangelical who has been appointed to head up an inter-church body says losing both his parents at a young age drew him closer to the Lord.

Mike Royal (see photo), a member of the Evangelical Alliance Council as well as a church leader in Birmingham, who is also involved with various Christian charities, will become General Secretary of Churches Together in England next March.

Living with chronic pain

Living with chronic pain
Emma Scrivener Emma Scrivener

Review LAUGHING AT THE DAYS TO COME Facing present trials and future uncertainties with gospel hope

Read review
‘I know your afflictions and your poverty’
the ENd word

‘I know your afflictions and your poverty’
Elizabeth McQuoid Elizabeth McQuoid

I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.(Revelation 2:9)

‘I know… ’

Fears of Afghan genocide and violence against believers in nearby ‘-stans’

Fears of Afghan genocide and violence against believers in nearby ‘-stans’
Iain Taylor Iain Taylor

Taliban murders of Christians in Afghanistan may spark wider violence against believers in neighbouring nations, it is feared.

The ignominious retreat from Afghanistan by the Western military powers has prompted much soul-searching among Christians across the entire region, as the Taliban now reigns supreme.

Experiencing loss
culture watch

Experiencing loss
James Paul James Paul

I recently listened to a wonderful talk by the poet Malcolm Guite in which he explores these lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ‘The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling / doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven / as imagination bodies forth the form of things unknown.’

Shakespeare is calling our attention to the way the artistic imagination can give shape and form to things ‘unknown’, so that earth and heaven, the temporal and eternal, matter and meaning, are connected. These words were rolling around my mind as I watched two films which explore the experience of loss from the inside out.

Living with Alzheimer’s – a love story

Living with Alzheimer’s – a love story

By Robin Thomson

What is the most important thing we can do for the person living with Alzheimer’s, or other kinds of dementia? It’s easy to feel powerless or uncomfortable. ‘I don’t go to visit my grandmother in her care home,’ a young friend told me. ‘I don’t know how I can relate to her or help her.’

Seven days: seven deaths in my church

Seven days: seven deaths in my church
Iain Taylor Iain Taylor

22million cases. Almost 250,000 deaths. Funeral pyres burning in car parks. And, most recently, the partially-burned bodies of 40 people or more washed up on the banks of the ‘sacred’ River Ganges. These are the terrifying numbers and distressing scenes we have seen on our TV screens as the Covid disaster in India has unfolded.

But how are churches in India responding to this epic disaster? Pastor Devender Verma is senior pastor of Delhi Bible Fellowship Church and director of the School of Biblical Teaching which trains pastors all over North India, in both rural and urban areas.

Have you grown in faith through the pandemic?
the ENd word

Have you grown in faith through the pandemic?
Elizabeth McQuoid Elizabeth McQuoid

‘Haven’t they grown!’ seems to be a well-worn phrase as we emerge from lockdown and meet up with young people and children we haven’t seen for more than a year.

Women who weren’t pregnant last time we saw them now have babies in their arms, tweens have become fully-fledged teens.

How can we mend broken relationships?

How can we mend broken relationships?
Carl Chambers

Book Review RELATIONSHIPS: How do I make things right?

Read review
Pastors and depression

Pastors and depression
John Benton

Pastors are ordinary people. They are not superhuman.

In a quick, recent, online survey of 22 pastors run from Pastors’ Academy, only four said they had never suffered from any kind of depression. Seventeen said they had felt depressed in the last year – I’m sure lockdown had a part to play in that. Six said that they were seeing a doctor and taking medication.

New support for bereaved
www.message.org.uk/griefandgrace

A new resource by Christian group The Message Trust uses powerful stories to support people as they live with grief.

It emphasises that God through His grace guides people through this time even if they don’t ever ‘get over it’.

Yet will I trust Him, though He slay me?
imperfect parenting

Yet will I trust Him, though He slay me?
'Imperfect Mum' 'Imperfect Mum'

Let me ask you something: what is your ‘normal’?

Normality has, for all intents and purposes, lost its meaning for the majority over the past year in the maelstrom of Covid-19, and what was normal remains (at the time of writing) a long way off.

Finding joy in lament
Pastoral Care

Finding joy in lament
Jo Jackson

If ever there were a time for lament, perhaps now is the time.

As this goes to print, we are either still in lockdown, just out of lockdown, or are perhaps about to go into another lockdown, all the while trying to come to terms with the past year of personal and global uncertainty.

Learning to rejoice in tough times
the ENd word

Learning to rejoice in tough times
Elizabeth McQuoid Elizabeth McQuoid

A recent newspaper article commented that current lockdown legislation was sucking the joy out of life: ‘Cancellation looms for Halloween, Christmas, bonfire night, and just about everything else that gives anybody any joy or meaning during Britain’s dark, long winters.’

No singing and other restrictions placed on church gatherings means that it’s easy to be swept along on this tidal wave of despair. But, in a strange way, the uncertainty of these days helps us hear with greater clarity God’s whisper to our soul: ‘What are you living for? Who are you living for?’ These ‘no celebration’ days encourage us to turn like never before to God and to rediscover the true source of joy.

Pain: what’s love got to do with it?

Pain: what’s love got to do with it?

Nicola Laver interviews Amy Orr-Ewing for en

There are few certainties in life, but one thing is sure – each one of us will both experience and observe suffering. Christians are never promised a life free of pain and anguish, but with the steadfast hope and comfort that we have in God we can comfort others.

Genocide: the plight of Muslim and Christian Uighurs

Genocide: the plight of Muslim and Christian Uighurs

A missionary, writing under the pseudonym Peter Morrison, issues a wake-up call

Genocide. The Armenians. The Jews. Rwanda. And more recently the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica and the Muslim Rohingya of Burma. And now many fear… the Muslim Uighurs of China – more than 1 million of whom have been imprisoned in ‘re-education’ camps.

Are we listening to the brokenhearted?

Are we listening to the brokenhearted?
Duncan Forbes

Our country’s 200m sprinter, Bianca Williams, said she was ‘heartbroken’ to be dragged from her car by police, and away from her baby.

I watched the video and found it hard to watch and hear a mother’s cries for her baby. There were a variety of public responses – can I gently ask how you responded?

If God, why coronavirus?

If God, why coronavirus?
John Lennox

The coronavirus is so called because it visibly resembles a crown (corona in Latin).

A crown is a symbol of power and authority – and certainly this virus has colossal power over us humans. It is invisible to the naked eye, and yet just think about what it has forced many millions – indeed, billions – of us to do and not do.

Registered Charity No. 296794. All content Evangelicals Now