24 questions · one place to begin
What hurts today?
You don’t need the right words. You don’t need to pretend you’re doing better than you are. Start with the question that sounds closest to what you’re carrying, and begin there.
Start where the pain is
You do not have to solve your whole life tonight.
Some days you need an argument. Other days you need permission to grieve, words for an angry prayer, clarity about forgiveness, or simply reassurance that God has not left. These answers are written to meet the question beneath the pain with Scripture, honesty, and pastoral care.
— Psalm 34:18, KJV
When God feels distant
God Feels Far Away
For seasons when God seems silent, absent, hard to recognize, or impossible to understand.
Has God really been here the whole time, or have I just told myself that to feel better?
He’s Always Been There
Read the answer → Answer 02If God is real, why doesn’t He just show Himself?
He Showed You His Face
Read the answer → Answer 03Why can’t I see what God is doing right now?
You’ll See It Looking Back
Read the answer → Answer 09Does God actually know what this feels like?
He Wept With You
Read the answer → Answer 10Isn’t His sympathy enough?
He Didn’t Just Enter It — He Ended It
Read the answer →When you need to know why
Why Did This Happen?
Questions about suffering, God’s goodness, unanswered explanations, and whether anything can be redeemed.
If God is good, why did He make a world with so much suffering in it?
This Is Not the World He Made
Read the answer → Answer 05Is it wrong that I keep asking God why?
Honest Questions Are Not Unbelief
Read the answer → Answer 06Why won’t God just tell me why this is happening?
He Knows More Than You Do
Read the answer → Answer 07Can anything good actually come out of this?
All Things — Even This
Read the answer → Answer 08What do I do when the explanation never comes?
Sometimes He Gives You Himself Instead of an Explanation
Read the answer →When someone or something is gone
Grief & Loss
For the funeral, the empty chair, the grief that lingers, and the question of whether death really gets the final word.
Is this really the end?
Death Does Not Get the Final Word
Read the answer → Answer 15How long am I allowed to still be sad about this?
You’re Allowed to Grieve as Long as It Takes
Read the answer → Answer 16Why did this happen to me?
Ask a Different Question
Read the answer → Answer 17Why does it feel like I’m getting worse instead of better?
Grief That Stops Moving Becomes Bitterness
Read the answer →When you are angry, disappointed, or tired of waiting
Anger & Unanswered Prayer
For prayers that seem unheard, injustice that feels ignored, and anger you are afraid to admit to God.
Does God even care that they’re getting away with it?
His Silence Isn’t His Approval
Read the answer → Answer 13What do I do when God says no?
A “No” Is Not the End of the Story
Read the answer → Answer 18Am I allowed to be furious with God?
Anger at God Is Not the Opposite of Faith
Read the answer → Answer 19What do I even say to God right now?
Bring Him the Real Prayer, Not the Polished One
Read the answer →When the wound has a name and a face
People Who Hurt Me
Betrayal, guilt, forgiveness, boundaries, reconciliation, and what to do when someone you trusted becomes part of the pain.
Am I just as guilty as the person who hurt me?
Your Pain and Their Guilt Are Not the Same Conversation
Read the answer → Answer 20Why does loving people hurt so much?
To Be Loved Is to Be Woundable
Read the answer → Answer 21How am I supposed to forgive someone who never even said sorry?
Forgiving Them Lets You Look Like Your Father
Read the answer → Answer 22Does forgiving them mean I have to let them back in?
Forgiveness Is Not Reconciliation
Read the answer →When certainty feels harder than it used to
Doubt & Faith
For church hurt, distorted pictures of God, questions you cannot shut off, and the fear that doubt has disqualified you.
No exact match yet.
Try a simpler word like grief, anger, doubt, forgiveness, death, prayer, or suffering.
Need to go deeper?
The website gives you a place to begin. The book takes you through the whole journey.
Answers for a Broken Heart traces these questions together, with fuller stories, deeper biblical development, and a pastoral path toward the God who has been present all along.