Life in chains: Is there a purpose to human suffering?

The question of human suffering concerns atheists and believers alike. For the former, the search for an answer drives them to the heights of despair. For the latter, suffering inevitably poses a dilemma: why is there so much suffering in the world if the God who created it is loving and omnipotent?

Return to meaning

"To feel that you have meaning is to feel immortal," psychology professor and author Clay Routledge wrote in 2014. Is this the only kind of immortality we will ever have?

Before drawing a conclusion

From my experience and the conversations I have had so far, I have found that there are two major categories of people who come to doubt the existence of God.

A day on the golf course and the unexpected effects of trauma

Douglas Jacobs has a long pastoral and academic career, as well as many hobbies and interests. An accidental witness to an armed incident that changed his perspective on life and death, he shares his surprising experiences and lessons learned.

The surprise of this very night

''The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain...

Four hundred and ninety times

“Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.” (Jerome Isaac Friedman)

How would God want a person to live on any given day?

Living one day according to God's plan is a good idea to start with. But learning to live in such a way every day is something else.

Gifts for good

When I was in my mid-twenties, I attended a university in Brisbane, Australia, two hours from where I lived. I had a friend in the city who I’d sometimes stay with to avoid having to travel back and forth on back-to-back uni days.

A mind at war in peacetime

When you discover that the only thing you have left is faith in God, you fervently wish that your faith doesn't end up poisoning your soul.

Chariots of Fire: what happened next?

This is the part of the story most people know: Eric Liddell, a conscientious Christian athlete, refused to run in the heats for the 100-metre sprint at the 1924 Paris Olympics because they were held on a Sunday. Instead, he switched to the 400 metres, an event he had hardly trained for, and won the gold medal for Britain. The story of his...

Doubt and the big choices

Some people regret the big choices they’ve made in life; others regret that life has not given them a choice.

The greatness of an ordinary life

From an early age, we are bombarded with messages telling us to stand out, to make something of ourselves, to do something great with our lives. Many times the voices are religious in nature: God has great plans for us, He will do truly remarkable things with our lives.

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

I was born into an Adventist family. This meant feeling that pretty much everything I knew, including my religious tradition, was the sole truth.

“He wrote our story”—but not in the way they had hoped

Their third wedding anniversary was just around the corner, but doctors had given Magda, belatedly diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a malignant bone tumour, no chance of recovery. Yet her husband Daniel continued to believe that God still had the last word.

COVID-19: Could giving up ever be the key to success?

Pray! If not to God, then to a god. Admit that we are defeated, because this is the first step towards victory.