Rejoicing in Lament

Starred review from January 19, 2015
In 2012, at age 39, seminary professor and minister Billings (Union with Christ) was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Faced with significantly reduced life expectancy, Billings finds himself asking such hard questions as why God would answer his and his wife’s prayers for their children, only to “take away their dad during their childhoods?” Praying in “the many keys of the Psalms”, Billings offers cries of anger and pain as an act of faith and trust. In entries from his online CarePages journal, he offers to family and friends theological reflections on his illness and treatment, opening an intimate window into his faith journey. An exploration of complex, age-old questions about suffering and God’s nature leads Billings to extol the beauty of mystery and the limits of human wisdom: “humans don’t have an answer to the problem of evil, and we shouldn’t claim that we have one.” Along with disclosing his wrenching questions, fears, and hopes, Billings explores “the ways in which God’s story intersects with the cancer story.” His poignant insight into the role of lament in faithful Christian living makes this a work of both astute scholarship and powerful testimony.