‘Where is God in all of this?’: Adventurer Joel Malm on trusting when pain abounds, nothing makes sense

By Chris Carpenter, Contributor Friday, May 12, 2023

Life is sometimes a struggle. There are moments when nothing makes sense and when we’re left trying to figure out why things happen the way they do. At some point amid the chaos, we ask, “Where is God in all of this?”

In the midst of transition or perhaps even loss, it can feel impossible to imagine how God is working all things together for good as Romans 8:28 proclaims.

Author Joel Malm has experienced challenging seasons throughout his life and he, too, has struggled with understanding life’s complex moments.

“I had a season of life where we felt like we were following the Lord,” Malm said on a recent episode of The Crossmap Podcast. “We moved to Mexico and it just became this disastrous experience. I mean, everything that could go wrong went wrong. We got our house broken into, I ticked off the gang leader and he was threatening our life. We walked away from that experience wondering how could things have possibly gone worse.”

In his new book, Connecting the Dots: What God is Doing When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, Malm teaches readers how to recognize the circular pattern of God’s work in their lives and how to embrace each unknown. His hope is to help readers realize that each unknown in our lives is really a crucial part of our redemption story.

Listen to Malm describe his journey:

Malm speaks from experience. As the president of Summit Leaders, he has traveled to 70 different countries. And living in some of the world’s most dangerous places has taught him to embrace the unexpected and navigate tumultuous times that just don’t seem to make sense.

“I’m convinced that the more you trust that God really is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, you’re going to at some point be able to look back and go, that was why that happened,” Malm shares. “But I’ll be honest. Some of those things we’re not going to understand until we get to the other side of the space-time continuum and stand before the Lord.”

Malm joins us on the Crossmap Podcast to talk about the new book, the circular nature of time, and what that means to individuals. Listen as Joel shares why God sometimes places us in uncomfortable situations and how you take your wounds and shape them into your message.