Today, September 15, is the release date of my new book If God Is Good. I hope you’ve had the chance to read some of the excerpts from the book that have been posted over the last few weeks.

In my life, I’d already seen enough evil and suffering to feel deeply troubled by it. What I needed was to find perspective on what troubled me. In this process of writing If God Is Good, I’ve taken most pleasure in focusing closely on God, exploring his attributes of goodness, love, holiness, justice, patience, grace and mercy. 

Our inability to understand all God’s purposes in evil and suffering should not surprise us.

I wrote If God Is Good because the question of suffering and evil is the most commonly raised and perplexing problem there is. It’s unusual to have serious prolonged interactions about believing in God, with either believers or unbelievers, without them raising it.  

My new book If God Is Good addresses what is arguably the greatest issue in human history: the problem of evil and suffering.

When I first answered this question a few years ago, a friend was holding her eighteen-month-old son in her arms, waiting for him to breathe his last. She was praying over him, reading Psalms aloud, trying to comfort and prepare him—and herself—for what was to come.

Today is the twentieth anniversary of an unforgettable experience. In 1989, I’d spoken at a missionary conference in Palmer, Alaska. Afterward, we were headed north to Galena, on the Yukon River, by small plane.

I have encouraged women in this situation to go to their husbands, explain their deep conviction about giving, perhaps share one of the passages about how God blesses givers, and tell him she believes God will provide for their family so that the amount she desires to give won't be noticed by him, even if it is substantial.

Here is Steve Harvey, a comedian, addressing a secular audience at the end of his routine. The question is, “How Would You Introduce Christ to a Room Full of People?" I’m not vouching for Steve Harvey in every respect (I’m unfamiliar with him), but I love this.