God, If You Love Me, Why is This Happening? {Vaneetha Risner}

Why, God? Why haven’t you shown up for me? If you love me, God, how could you let this happen to me?

Have you ever asked questions like these? In today’s episode on the Live Like It’s True podcast, we’re going to invite you to bring your questions straight to Jesus. And I think you might be surprised by the answers to these questions, embedded in the story of Jesus interacting with Martha and Mary after Lazarus’s death (John 11).

I’m so grateful to have Vaneetha Risner joining me today to talk about the hard questions we bring to Jesus. I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who has suffered in so many significant ways, like Vaneetha has. As we talk through this story from the Bible, Vaneetha will help you live like it’s true that you have hope.

Do you know someone who needs to be reminded of these things? Won’t you pass this episode on to her?

Guest: Vaneetha Risner

Bible Passage: The Story of Lazarus in John 11

Get your Freebie: The Live Like It’s True Workbook

Mentioned Resources

Desperate for Hope by Vaneetha Risner
The Scars that Have Shaped Me by Vaneetha Risner
Funeral Sorrow and the Best Plot Twist Ever with Mary Kassian
The Return of the King, Lord of the Rings, Book 3 by J.R. Tolkien

Transcript

Vaneetha Risner

Vaneetha is passionate about helping people find hope in their suffering. All her books: the Bible Study, Desperate For Hope, her memoir, Walking Through Fire, and the devotional, The Scars That Have Shaped Me, encourage readers to turn to Christ in their pain.

Her story includes childhood bullying, losing an infant son, developing post-polio syndrome, and going through an unwanted divorce. Some of her greatest joys are being a wife to Joel and a mother to Katie and Kristi and you can find her embarrassing them in Raleigh, NC. Vaneetha writes regularly for Desiring God, and has been featured on Family LifeToday, Joni & Friends, and Christianity Today.

Connect with Vaneetha

Website: Vaneetha.com

Facebook: VaneethaRisner

Instagram: @vaneetharisner

Twitter: @vaneetharisner

Will All the Sad Things Come Untrue?

Here’s the quote Vaneetha mentioned, from The Return of the King, Lord of the Rings, Book 3:

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”

A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.”

What a beautiful glimpse at the overarching story of our Bible. It’s truly a story of all the sad things—which began with sin entering the world, in the Garden of Eden—coming untrue. We have so much to look forward to!