small group discussion of R.Warren, "God's answers to life's difficult questions"

Chapter 3 is about responses to crisis [etymology: from Greek, dating from Medieval times - 'deciding point' or turning point in a disease; high stakes or danger]. The author pulls passages or personalities from the pages of the Bible to illustrate the principles that God is near (particularly close in the "thin spaces" of transition or life crisis), God knows and cares for you now and eternally, and that however things may go and you may respond - from God's point of view everything will be OK in the end.

And so, like many practices of Christianity and the other Abrahamic faith traditions, the more you engage in it, the more sense it makes and the better the results. For example, the discipline of praying frequently and widely leads to a more discerning heart, one less hardened and able to listen for or indeed seek out God's direction. Likewise when facing life's difficult questions listed chapter by chapter in the book, at first perhaps the passages from the Bible seem strange or baffling. But as one's habits of heart slowly are trained to God's angle, then things begin to happen for the better.