The story first starts out on a journey of a young man who has lost so much and had his faith tested. His parent's divorced, he had no job, his fiancée left him, he battled health problems, his pastor did not seem to be interested in his suffering, and did not sympathize with him. This young man was losing his faith, because he didn't think God really cared, and was actually really there. He wanted to know where God was and would cry out to God for Him to show evidence of His presence. This story brings out the three questions that are so often asked by believers when they are enduring hard trials and suffering. Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden? We all struggle from time to time with these questions. In this book Yancey tries to answer these questions through a biblical standpoint. .
One of the central aspects of the three questions is the aspect of faith. God wants us to have faith. We often start to experience doubt in our faith when God isn't revealing himself and he seems to just be hanging out behind the curtain. Job, according to Yancey, is not basically about suffering but rather his faith in God. Yancey then turns to try and explain how Jesus' life is related to the three questions. The questions, -Is God silent- and "Is God hidden- are explained in that Jesus came to the Earth, clothed in human flesh. He broke the silence when he became human. Yancey points out that the reason that sometimes God hides himself is because "He desires something that power could never win-. The question of "Is God unfair?- poses the most and probably frequent of problems in the Christian's walk with Christ. We often wonder why God would choose to help one person and not the other.
Yancey begins to try to answer each question brought forth individually. He starts out with the question of "Is God unfair?- He points out that we aren't exempt from disappointment, just as God was not.