Jon Bellamy spoke with Philip Yancey to find out

Jonathan: Outside of being an author, do you find that a lot of people come to you for help?

Philip: Well the funny thing is I don't think I'm a very good counsellor. When I go to a hospital, for example and I visit someone and they're angry at God, I start getting angry at God; or if they're depressed I start getting depressed. I think that's the journalist instinct; we accept and absorb the people that we're interviewing, that we're around. My wife comes in, who was a hospice chaplain and she always knows exactly what to say. I never know what to say, but I do know how to take notes and I can take those questions back and it's much more comfortable exploring them in the form of my writing, rather than trying to come up with something on the spur of the moment like that.

Jonathan: I imagine you've got a lot of influence because of the success of your books; does that weigh on your heart in terms of responsibility?

Philip: I try not to think about it. There is no more lonely profession than a writer's profession. If there's even one person in the room with me, I can't write, so most of the time I'm sitting there all alone, paranoid, thinking I've got to come up with another word, I've got to come up with another sentence and occasionally they let me out of my cage and I go out there and I realise, oh there are actually real people out here who read my books. I only hear positive comments about something that I wrote two years ago though, so I get no help about what I'm writing right now. When I go back to work, it's that same isolated paranoia producing process all over again. I don't feel like there's a burden that I've got to come up with the answers; frankly I'm much more comfortable with the questions. The more I get out, the more questions I have and I feel privileged that I can come back in and take as much time as it requires, as much time as I have, to give to a topic to try to come up with, if not answers, at least some different way of looking at the questions; something I can live with, something that will give me practical help.

Jonathan: What would you say is one of the most memorable moments where you've really seen an impact in somebody's life through your work?

Philip: I just flew here last night from Romania and while I was there I spoke to a conference of pastors and Christians. A woman had come all the way from Germany and she told me an incredible story; 26 years ago she was in an auto accident where her brother died and over the next few years she had gotten transfusions of tainted blood and was one of the first Aids HIV carriers in Germany. She described to me the pain of hearing people in the church come with these flippant answers like, 'You did something to deserve this' and the way the church reacted with fear and paranoia about her disease. Then she went and told me about a book that I had written, almost 30 years ago, 'Where Is God When It Hurts?' and what a help to her that was. I remember going back to my hotel room that night just shaking my head. I can't believe that something I wrote long ago would somehow make its way across an ocean and actually penetrate the life of a person going through what she has gone through. That's the miracle of writing, because I certainly didn't know that, I couldn't possibly foretell that when I wrote the book. All I can do is put my writing out there and hope that God can use it as a word of comfort or a word of hope that can find its way into those cracks into a person who really needs it, like this woman.

Jonathan: In the UK many people are living with the impact of debt and fears of job losses as we face cuts in the economy. In your understanding of God when life hurts, when it's tough, what would you say to anyone who is worried about those things?

Philip: I would say, don't try to tackle them alone. One of the things that the church provides is a community. I grew up in a church that I write about freely, that has been very unhealthy; but boy when somebody lost their job, when somebody's house burned down, the church would respond. The church would gather round and provide practical human needs. When somebody was in the hospital they would bring meals, they would take care of the children and whatever was necessary. The question was, 'where is God when it hurts?' The question really is where is the church when it hurts? If we are doing our job then people won't go around wondering about God because they will know what God is like through the actions of God's people on earth.

You can buy 'What Good is God?' from Cross Rhythms Direct for just £12.34.