When Skies Fall: 8 Sermons on Finding God in the Midst of Life's Trials

Death, loss, illness, betrayal and other crises are often framed as tests of faith. They challenge all that we have been taught and all that we believe about God. They evoke gut level questions like, "Why did God allow this to happen?" Our response to life's trials can take the form of anger towards God or the feeling that somehow we might have deserved the misfortune that has come upon us. These are not new questions or new emotions. They are older the Bible itself, which is why the Bible is such a rich resource for finding our way through adversity. The eight sermons in this book explore the ways in which what we experience as a crisis of faith is really a crisis of understanding. Our doubts are not as much about our faith in God as they are a questioning of our assumptions about God. The sermons in this book take the approach that the trials that might compel us to close the door on God, can actually be the threshold to a deeper faith and a more spiritually mature understanding of God's nature.