Do you ever wonder why God allows bad things to happen? Do you wonder why He allowed the Tsunami just about one year ago? What about Hurricane Katrina? The earthquake in Kashmir? What about suicide bombers? Murderers? Rapists? Fires? Auto Accidents? Or birth defects? I am sure there are many other circumstances that have come into your life or those around you that has changed your life forever. If this describe you, then I highly recommend this book, Brokenness: How God Redeems Pain and Suffering by Lon Solomon. It will help give you an understanding of God uses this pain suffering for His purpose. If you are going through a time like this, then ask God for the strength to carry on. Feel free to email me as well and I will gladly pray for you.

Lon Solomon is the pastor of McLean Bible Church in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. In this book he relates his personal experiences of his daughter was born with a rare disease that causes thousands of seizures. These seizures have left her brain damaged and totally reliant on others for her care. He relates how the struggles he and his family faced through this experience taught him how to truly rely on God.

Lon explains how God used this process, which he calls brokenness, to show him how he relied on himself instead of God. He reveals how God took all of his personal plans and discarded them. Lon finally got to the point of knowing that God is in total control. He learned that he must rely on God for everything. His ministry has flourished and God has blessed it mightily. It is now larger than even Lon had planned. It is also tremendously more effective now as well.

We may not understand why things happen, but God does. God plans our lives and uses them to further his Kingdom in a way that glorifies him and not us. Lon walks us through why God breaks each of us who wants to truly serve Him. He explains that God must break us so he can fully use us. I’ll use Lon’s words to describe why we must be broken:

Lon goes through the lives of several people who were broken and then saw their influence and ministries flourish. These examples are D.L. Moody, Moses, Peter, Jacob, Isaiah, Abraham, Job, Paul, Joseph and several others. These examples will encourage you when you realize what each of these men lost and then what they were given by God when He could freely use them.

Brokenness is just over 130 pages long with 6 chapters. It would also be a great book for a Bible Study group. Each chapter has questions that lend themselves to serious discussion and introspection.