Life can be hard. Full stop. And yet Christians should be known for their joy and peace, no matter the external circumstances. How does that work? Ray Ortland seeks to tackle that challenge in his recent book, Good News at Rock Bottom: Finding God When the Pain Goes Deep and Hope Seems Lost. By using Isaiah 57:15 as a foundation, Ortland seeks to take sufferers from a place of deep pain and sorrow and lead them to see the God who meets them where they are and walks the path of suffering with them.
After laying out his framework, Ortland addresses people who have been betrayed and what forgiveness looks like as part of the healing process. He then addresses those who feel trapped by sin. Sin deceives, ensnares, and traps people, and our guilt is compounded by the fact that we are often willing victims. To this the author applies the glorious truths of the gospel, which frees the trapped from the bondage of sin. In chapter 4, Ortland addresses the lonely, those who feel as if God and others have abandoned them. His last chapter addresses those who are dying, and deals with the challenges and struggles that come with that stage of life.
This is a short book (145 pages). It is not designed to be a full biblical theology of suffering. What it seeks to be it does very well. It is meant to be a balm for the soul of the sufferer. It is meant to help hurting, broken people understand that God is there, and that He cares, and that He stoops to meet them in their pain without waiting for them to “get over it.” In this Ortland succeeds greatly. He takes readers to the only place where true help is found: a big, holy, and good God. Without minimizing suffering, Ortland leads readers to the only One Who is bigger than that suffering and who can bring peace in the midst of it.
This book is a great resource for a biblical counselor to use with someone who is suffering, a book to be given away to someone who is facing hardship, or a great resource for a book table at a ministry like Griefshare. It is full of gospel truth, but in an accessible, short, and easy-to-read format. I highly recommend it.
