Why does a good God allow suffering? It’s the question every pastor gets asked, and honestly, it’s rarely the real question underneath it. What people actually want to know is simpler and harder: does God still love me when my life falls apart?

In this message, Jeff Brodie opens Honest to God, a new series at Connexus, by walking through Romans 5 and what the apostle Paul, a man who was beaten, imprisoned, and shipwrecked for his faith, actually says about suffering. Not from a place of theory, but from someone who lived it.

This isn’t a message about pretending suffering makes sense or slapping a bow on it. It’s about what it means to trust God in the middle of what you don’t understand, and why comfort was never the point.

If you’ve ever wondered whether God turned his back on you in your hardest moment, or you’re just curious what a church actually has to say about pain that doesn’t resolve, start here.