Real-life testimony endorses DVD on making sense of tough times

DVD Review by Andre Viljoen

WHEN GOD? — ANDY STANLEY
Genre: Teaching DVD

‘When God?’ Is the title of an Andy Stanley DVD that was sent to me to be reviewed. Before I got to view it, a friend, Greg, who is experiencing tough times, spotted the DVD — still in its shrink wrap — on my DVD shelf. The title got his attention as he was asking God the same question as he struggled to secure work despite his considerable skills, experience and solid work ethic. “When God will all of this frustration come to an end?”. I did not offer a glib answer and agreed to lend him the DVD. A few days later Greg returned the DVD and said it was excellent. “So it helped you?” I asked. “It has given me a new perspective,” he confirmed. Intrigued, I viewed the DVD as soon as possible.

In “When God”, Stanley, the gifted communicator and senior pastor of North Point Community Church — the second largest church in the United States according to Wikipedia –asks “What do you do when God feels distant, when God doesn’t cooperate, and When God seems late?”

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Indeed, Stanley does not offer simple explanations for those times when people’s circumstances go from bad to worse and prayers don’t appear to be answered. What he does do, in this three part series, is to explore the life of three men from the New Testament, each loved by God, but whose circumstances respectively seemed to suggest that God was inattentive, uncooperative and late. Indeed, during trials, many people have found some comfort in discovering that they are not alone in their travails and that they are not suffering because of a lack of faith, a lack of knowledge, or sin. How much more comforting then, to discover that some New Testament giants of faith have shared the same experience.

Some days after Greg returned the DVD, his wife Nicola sent me a facebook message, saying that the transformation is his outlook since viewing the DVD was ‘astounding’. She said that before he watched the DVD she did not know how to help him “through the drought”.

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Thanks Greg and Nicola for reviewing this DVD in a way I could never have done!