Why does God allow suffering? It’s one of the oldest and most urgent questions in human experience, and Dr. Rolf Jacobson has lived inside it. Diagnosed with bone cancer at 15 and losing both legs, then decades later walking alongside his brother Karl and close friend Mike through simultaneous cancer diagnoses, Rolf has wrestled with that question personally, pastorally, and theologically. In this conversation with host Dwight Zscheile, he draws on the theology of the cross, the Psalms, and the hard-won wisdom of his own experience to offer some of the most grounded and practical guidance you’ll hear on faith, suffering, and Christian community.
Rolf talks about what to say and what not to say to someone in crisis, why the impulse to explain suffering usually backfires, and what it looks like for a congregation to truly show up for someone going through the worst. He also shares the story behind his book God Meets Us in Our Suffering, co-authored with Karl and Michael Pancoast, and why he believes the theology of the cross is not abstract doctrine but the most practical pastoral theology there is. Dr. Rolf Jacobson is Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary.
