When God Feels Far Away

By now, some of you have questions.

Not just about what happened — about why. About where God is in something like this. About whether the faith you had before this feels different now that this is the reality you’re living in.

Those questions are not wrong. They’re honest. And they deserve an honest response.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is not the prayer of someone whose faith is collapsing. It’s the prayer of someone whose faith is honest enough to say what is actually true in the middle of the worst thing. The psalmist doesn’t perform confidence he doesn’t feel. He says exactly what is happening: God feels absent. The cries go unanswered. The anguish is real.

Jesus said these words from the cross. That is not a small thing. The son of God, in the worst moment of human history, asked the question you’re asking right now. Where are you?

I can’t give you a satisfying theological answer to why this happened. Anyone who gives you one quickly is not taking the question seriously enough. What I can tell you is that the God who met the psalmist in Psalm 22 — who received the honest cry of abandonment and did not turn away from it — is the same God who is in this room with your questions.

The questions are allowed. The doubt is allowed. The anger is allowed. Bring all of it. The God who heard the psalm is not afraid of what you’re carrying.

Create genuine safety. These questions may be significant and raw. Hold them with care without rushing to answers.