When Answers Aren't Enough: Experiencing God As Good When Life Isn't

On April 16, 2007, 33 Virginia Tech students were killed in the worst massacre in modern U.S. history. As campus pastor, Rogers found himself asking and being asked, "Where is God?" Going beyond pat answers and intellectual responses, he explores the depths of our longing for a Savior we can trust when nothing else is certain. 224 pages, softcover from Zondervan.

On April 16, 2007, the campus of Virginia Tech experienced a collective nightmare when thirty-three students were killed in the worst massacre in modern U.S. history. Following that horrendous event, VA Tech campus pastor Matt Rogers found himself asking and being asked, “Where is God in all of this?” The cliché-ridden, pat answers rang hollow. In this beautifully written reflection, Rogers illumines the path for experiencing God as truly good when life isn’t.

Rogers, a pastor at New Life Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech, reflects on the tragedy that shook the campus (and the nation) in April 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 fellow students and professors. However, this isn't primarily a message of pastoral comfort, or even a journalistic account about how students of faith have walked through their grief. (Rogers is more than 50 pages into the book before he mentions that one of the students who died attended his church.) Instead, it centers around Rogers's own heartache and struggle to understand how God can give so many good gifts and yet allow such horror. While there are poetic moments, and readers will be comforted by his thoughts on the way the world was meant to be and the world that is to come, there's little new, and all the brooding introspection can become wearying. With a release timed around the anniversary of the shootings, there promises to be a lot of interest and plenty of media opportunities. Unfortunately, the book could have been much better if Rogers had gotten out of his own pain and focused on the students he works with. (Apr.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

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Reviewed by MJ (Georgia, USA), September 14, 2008

When Answers Aren't Enough is a work of deep expression and emotions put onto paper for all to see straight from the heart of Matt Rogers. Through this book, Matt was able to retell what it was like to be part of the Virgina Tech family during their extreme loss, but it goes well beyond that as well. He delves into many different examples of tragedy where people have screamed, "There is no God! He would not let this happen, if there was", and takes the reader past dwelling on the questions. Truly answers are not enough for comprehending heart break, but usually it is not unless we are past the questions that we can truly see that fact in front of us. This book is a painful and pleasant journey through pain and the after thought. It is a well written conversation between Matt and the reader, and it is one that I suggest everyone should take part in experiencing. God is good, and is always good, while life wavers on what it seems to want to be. But through the bad in life we can then see the good in God. I'd suggest this book as a read for anyone and everyone. This is a dictation of what really matters, and that's Christ, our Lord God and his will and design.

Reviewed by Stacey (Las Vegas, NV), August 09, 2008

Mark Rogers’ “When Answers Aren’t Enough” is a heartbreaking and hopeful read, not offering answers for how to handle tragedy, but rather pointing the reader to the ultimate source of comfort, God. The novel is broken into three parts. Part One introduces the grim reality that is life. Part Two takes you back to the perfect beginning of life as God intended it to be. Part Three offers hope for the future as God’s will is accomplished. The stories within these pages of this emotional novel are told by the author with raw frankness and great courage. The end notes are a helpful source of additional information.

Reviewed by maureen (central valley, ca), June 22, 2008

Matt Rogers tries to unlock that nagging question that haunts those who have experienced tragedy in their lives--"Why would God allow this?" However, this well written narrative feels more like one man's struggle to try to come to terms with a good God in a bad situation and finding Him (which is encouraging) but doesn't necessarily meet his intended goal of being an example to help others come to the same conclusion. I often felt more depressed and empathetic for him, rather than translating it to helping others or myself feel better. (Kind of like having to read Lamentations in the Bible only on good days so I don't have a black cloud over my head.) It is possible, however, that this book will mean more to those that also went through a horrendous experience like the VT killings and may have similar unanswered questions. Still worth a read.

Reviewed by Amy (Midwest), May 26, 2008

I found this book honest and at times, heart-wrenching. But in the end, it is also eminently hopeful. It didn't offer up canned responses, it did exactly as I hoped it would. It pointed to the Creator. I would highly recommend this book to anyone grieving.

Reviewed by Dennis Rodgers (Robinson, IL), May 25, 2008

Searching for answers to the question of the goodness of God after the Virginia Tech tragedy,Pastor Rogers not only is able to face his own questions, but helps us face ours. His view of the tragedy of death was the most Biblical I have read in a long time. A must read "spiritual life" book for thinking Christians and Christians who want to think.

Reviewed by Heather Curlee Novak (South Bend, IN), May 24, 2008

Matt Rogers shares his honest stream of consciousness, even the parts that most people would hide. Doubt, anger, shame...he covers everything surrounding the tragedy at Virginia Tech and this is what I enjoyed most about the book. Some chapters felt disjointed and I found that distracting. Roger's transparency allows the reader to love God and be angry too, to grieve and live and hope all at the same time. All in all it was an interesting and very personal account of the variety of emotions surrounding grief and our view of God as good.

Reviewed by Karen McGee (Chicago, IL), May 22, 2008

In his book, "When Answers Aren't Enough," Matt Rogers addresses the question, "If God is good, why is there so much suffering in this world?" Working as a pastor in a church in Blacksburg, Virginia, at the time of the massacre of 33 people at Virginia Tech, he works through this central question not only in light of that event, but also through his personal experiences and the experiences of others. Matt Rogers does not try to force any specific theology on the reader in this book; he does not write densely or in a way that makes his point difficult to understand. He is honest. His language is raw. His questions are real and difficult and uncomfortable, but by asking these questions, he's able to take the reader on a journey through his experiences and offer some insight as his thoughts are challenged and changed throughout the book. The reader goes on a journey with Rogers, from utter doubt and anger at how far away a "good God" seems in the midst of suffering to solidifying his experiences of God's goodness in suffering. As a young adult who recently experienced the death of someone very near to me, I was enthralled by Rogers' book. It was a quick read and understandable. Rogers’ honest questions and thoughts on the topic of suffering prompted me to ask more questions about my experiences with tragedy. His book did not really change or deeply challenge my thoughts on God's goodness in tragedy, but it did put into words the emotions I have felt and the thoughts I've had and solidified my life experiences, as well as helped me to reflect on how I can keep my faith strong when it is challenged by such earthly challenges as death. I would recommend this book to anyone who has experienced tragedy either in their own lives or is supporting someone who has had their faith challenged by suffering, or just to anyone looking for a good read about someone's journey from demanding answers to overarching questions to simply having faith in a good God.

Reviewed by Steve North (Grand Rapids, MI), May 20, 2008

Reading “When Answers Aren’t Enough” is like looking over the shoulder of Matt Rogers as he writes in his spiritual journal every day after a life-altering event. This effect is both insightful and depressing. Only those who have been through the kind of trauma he describes, the mass killing of students and faculty at Virginia Tech, can fully appreciate the depth of pain and dis-ease that enter daily life. It seems as if every part of every day for months afterward was a reminder of something or someone from that moment of his life frozen in time. I would recommend this book for someone going through a significant sudden loss. The why questions and the search for solutions are a part of many people’s lives. Matt may help others cover some familiar ground and help those in pain realize, “I’m not alone. Someone else has struggled with these same issues and questions.” I tried to read it as a minister who sometimes comes alongside those in pain and attempts to help them sense God’s nearness even in the midst of this kind of devastating loss. From that perspective I found it less satisfying. It seems that the people most affected by the attack, a student who was wounded and a family who lost a child, were more helpful to Matt than Matt was to others. They seemed to have a season of grief, but then be able to move on to another chapter that included some celebration. A part of me wanted to urge Matt to stop obsessing on himself and his loss of innocence and get back on the field where people are wounded every day in far less dramatic, yet just as significant, ways. A friend of mine used to be a Campus Minister at Kent State. He said that even though the shootings during the Viet Nam War had happened decades before, there was still a sense of “darkness” around campus and especially as the yearly anniversary came up. Matt may have to be prepared to write a sequel to this book in a few years to explain how life does or does not move on for him.

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Author: Matt Rogers
Located in: United States
Submitted: March 25, 2008

    Tell us a little about yourself.  I am one of the pastors of New Life Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech. Eight hundred students call it home. In addition to our campus ministry, we have a community congregation in Blacksburg, Virginia, that we recently launched. As for me? I never know how to describe myself because we change daily through our experiences. I guess I would say I'm pretty serious, a deep thinker, though with a dry wit. I like to laugh, and I like people who make me laugh. In fact, one of the best things in life is laughing so hard you cry.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  Too many books on suffering and grief focus almost exclusively on providing answers to troubling questions: How can God be good when the world so often isn't? Answers help, but rarely do they heal. I experienced this first hand after the tragedy at Virginia Tech in which thirty-two students were killed by a fellow student. When pain interrupts life in a big way, we need more than intellectual solutions. So the question is not so much, "How can God be good when the world isn't?" but rather, "How can I EXPERIENCE God as good when life isn't?" The psalmist says to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8 TNIV). In other words, move beyond the intellectual. Use your senses. Experience your faith. This is our real need in suffering: not merely intellectual solutions, but God himself. I wanted to write a book that, through my own story after the Virginia Tech massacre, gave others a path to experiencing God as good when life isn't.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  The way to peace in the absence or insufficiency of answers. Sometimes we don't know why terrible things happen. Even when we do know, the knowing often doesn't help much. Again, we were created for God, not answers. If this book helps people experience God as deeply good in the midst of their grief, I will be very happy indeed.

    How were you personally impacted by working on this project?  I never left April 16, 2007, behind. I thought about it every day as I wrote the book. At times, this was exhausting and wearying. Ultimately, though, I believe it was therapeutic. Rather than running from the sadness, I embraced it, worked through it slowly but thoroughly. As a result, I feel a wholeness I doubt would have been possible otherwise. When Moses went up on the mountain to hear from God, the Bible says he "approached the thick darkness where God was" (Exodus 20:21 TNIV). I love that image. God was in the darkness. Moses had to enter into it to experience God. That has been my story this past year.

    Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists?  Madeleine L'Engle (to whom my book is dedicated) taught me to experience what I once only believed. She, through her writing, helped me see something better than intellect alone, and I am grateful for her influence in my life. Philip Yancey: I can't say enough how his honesty and transparency have given me freedom to face my own doubts and questions. Pick up a copy of "Where is God When it Hurts?" or "Disappointment with God." Both are excellent books. If I could choose to write like another author, I would choose to emulate Annie Dillard. You simply must experience the beauty of her prose (that borders on poetry) in "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." And what Christian writer hasn't felt the influence of C.S. Lewis? You can hear echoes of his "A Grief Observed" in my "When Answers Aren't Enough."

    Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know:  When I write, I aim first at raw honesty. I want readers to know that pastors face the same questions, doubts, and fears as the rest of the world. At least this pastor does. Hopefully, readers will find solace in that knowledge.

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