sufferingTag Archive -

Christmas Will Never Be the Same

December 20, 2008 in Discipleship,Radical Hope with 0 Comments

Four days before Christmas, 2001. I should be talking with my son and his wife about their life, their dreams, and the joy of the holidays. That’s what we usually do when they fly home from their military duty station from somewhere in the world. Any other year our conversation this morning would revolve around the soon arrival of his sister’s family from Oregon and how great it’s going to be to spend Christmas just being together with the extended family

But not this year.

This is my first Christmas as the dad and grandpa formerly known as myself.

Choosing Hope Small Group

December 8, 2008 in Help You Best?,Radical Hope,Spiritual Formation with 0 Comments

One of the best ways to process the message of When God Breaks Your Heart is in a small group. There’s something about a gathering of trusted friends in a home or over a meal that promotes healing.

But brace yourself.  I’m not saying it will be easier for you; I’m saying it will help you more. There’s nothing easy about dealing with the hurts of life this book deals with.
A pastor struggling with the deep emotional and spiritual pain of betrayal and abandonment meets every Sunday afternoon with a few couples. His wife reports that it’s extremely painful as they pray and talk through the pages of the book…but when the words of the book mix with the love and encouragement of friends, they find hope.
If you would like to know more about how to start a Choosing Hope group in your home, let me know.

The Shack

October 27, 2008 in Radical Hope with 0 Comments

THE SHACK

A pastor friend called after reading my book and said, “Wow, Ed. Have you read The Shack? Your saying the same thing from two different perspectives. The Shack speaks to the deepest hurts of life through fiction, and your book tells your story from the perspective of John 11. It would make a great follow-up for people who wanted to know if there was somewhere specifically in the Bible they could turn to.”
I love the comparison, and I have read The Shack. I enjoyed it immensely as fictional literature, and I do believe that the same hurting heart who draws nearer to God through The Shack would find When God Breaks Your Heart helpful.
The subtitles of the books tell me that we’re both trying to connect broken hearts to God: The Shack, Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity, and When God Breaks Your Heart, Choosing Hope In The Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances. The difference, of course, is that the stories in The Shack come from the creative mind of William Young and the stories in When God Breaks Your Heart come from my personal story and the story of Mary and Martha.
So, if you enjoyed The Shack, I think you’ll like  the raw honesty of When God Breaks Your Heart.

Ed

First Review

September 29, 2008 in Radical Hope with 1 Comment

The first review of my book is in, but it’s pretty humbling. It comes from two very special girls in my life–granddaughters Megan and Cam. Their mom,and my daughter, Aimee, writes:

So the girls saw it on the kitchen counter and were looking at the book today. And Meg said, “who’s it dedicated to?” So I showed her the dedication page. She read and thought it was “cool” with the “should, could, would” part–then the absolute glee in her voice as she said, “PAPA KNOWS DAVID COOK?!” and Cam ran over to see for herself, and indeed, there it was, in black and white–you had thanked David Cook! I regretfully told them that this was, alas, not the David Cook from American Idol, and Megan’s next words were priceless: “but it’s still really cool that Papa wrote a book.” Out of the mouths of babes.
Well, it’s not a bad review. It’s just that I’m not as cool a grandpa as they first imagined.
Ed
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