Episode 2: God, I Trusted You—And My Worst Nightmare Came True Anyway with Mike Noriega

Quick life update & Second Cup update:

Dear Second Cup Fam:

It’s our last full week of August (how can this be?)! I want to share a few life & writing updates real quick before jumping into this A-MA-ZING conversation with Mike Noriega with you today:

• Vivian will turn 3 next week and we’re celebrating with a tea-for-turning-three party. I’ve been thrifting tea cups and tea pots. My mom sent sparkly shoes. It’s safe to say we’re all very excited for the event.

• Theo starts Pre-K in two weeks. We bought his first pair of brand new sneakers. I cried. [They’re already dirty.]

• I am 34 weeks pregnant and feeling it. I’m looking forward to this baby boy being on the outside. He has the hiccups multiple times a day and I forget everything and I will be flabbergasted if he’s not early [but just watch him prove me wrong and stay all cozy in there].

• There is still time to become a paid subscriber and get your Poetry is for Rebels Sweatshirt to celebrate The Second Cup turning 1 here on Substack (until August 31st)! I ordered a fresh shipment because I KNOW life is wild & Apple Pay doesn’t always cooperate & that there are some of you out there still who WANT THAT SWEATSHIRT but keep forgetting. [Hint, now’s a good time to do that!]

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When my mother-in-law died, I remember feeling entirely baffled. How could it be? It didn’t seem to match what I believed about God: that if I prayed and had faith at least as big as a mustard seed (and a mustard seed is small), then she would be healed.

So what? I wondered. Was my faith so puny that it didn’t even reach God? Did I pray for the wrong things, or in the wrong way? Did God even register the sweeping effect her death would have over the rest of us here on earth? And the scariest question of all:

Did he even care?

I know I’m not alone, here. It’s the million dollar question: How can a good God allow suffering?

Mike Noriega—author of “Uncollapseable Soul”—and I grapple with the tension between faith and suffering in our conversation on The Second Cup Show this week.

We talk about:

• The loss of Mike’s grandmother in the infamous Surfside Condo Collapse in Miami, Florida (2021)

• How Jesus didn’t opt out of sorrow here on earth & why that can give us considerable comfort

• The difference between a broken heart & a crushed spirit

• How to love someone well through their tragedy (and what not to say)

• The art of choosing healthy solitude over unhealthy isolation in times of grief

This conversation with Mike is like a tender kick in the pants: he approaches grief and suffering with empathy, and at the same time encourages us to never, never agree with the crushing of our spirits.