For many of us the natural instinct when suffering is to say, “Why me?” Suffering so often feels like an aberration from normal, from what we expect, even what we think we deserve. Rarely do we respond, “Why NOT me?” despite the inevitability of trials in this fallen world.

Veneetha Rendall Risner has dealt with more than her share of trials, which she recounts in her new book, Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption. She opens up her thought process for a raw look at the emotional and spiritual wrestling of suffering. She writes:

When I was younger, I thought I understood the way God operated. I believed that God gives each of us some suffering, but that if we love Christ, the suffering will never be too great or for too long. My view of faith was transactional: I’d been good, and so God owed me a good life.

Vaneetha joined me on Gospelbound to discuss anger toward God and the reason for suffering, among other sensitive matters. It’s not easy to write such a raw memoir of pain, loss, and broken relationships. Sometimes life feels like a forest burning all around us, and we’re just hoping to avoid the flaming debris. But Vaneetha keeps us focused on the God who carries us across the burning coals.