#118 - Things are Really that Bad {Reflections}

What if the most faithful prayer you can pray sounds like a complaint? We lean into Jesus’ searing words from the cross—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—and ask what it means to tell the truth about suffering without reaching for easy answers. Rather than treating Psalm 22 as a shortcut to positivity, we explore why letting Good Friday be dark actually strengthens hope, because it refuses to pretend that evil is secretly good or that pain is just a lesson wrapped in disguise.

Together we talk about the difference between cheap silver linings and real resurrection. Some things are simply bad—abuse, betrayal, violence, shattered relationships—and they do not become good by spin or sentiment. The Christian claim is bolder and more honest: God meets us in the depths, not by erasing the past, but by bringing beauty from what is not beautiful and weaving restoration through what felt beyond repair. Drawing on the laments of Job and Jonah, the scholarship of N. T. Wright, and the theology of Jürgen Moltmann, we hold space for grief as an act of faith. Lament is prayer with the volume turned up, the sound of trust refusing to go silent.

We also take a clear look at the pattern that shapes every disciple’s journey: Good Friday before Easter Sunday. You cannot leap from wound to triumph without passing through the ache. Yet the promise of resurrection remains steady, not as a silver lining but as a new creation that tells the final truth over our broken stories. If the resurrection is true, then restoration is not wishful thinking—it is our future. Until then, we practice resilient faith: naming pain, standing with the suffering, and trusting that God is at work even when we cannot see it.

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