Divine Disruption: Holding On to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart

“How do you balance the goodness of God with the tragedies of life?” asks senior pastor of Dallas Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Evans (Prayers for Knowing God) in this eloquent inquiry, written with his four grown children. The close-knit family focuses here on lessons learned after the death of eight extended family members in less than two years, and, to that end, they share personal insights and scriptural examples of how to cling to hope in God in the midst of grief: “The Lord does not ask that we be okay with being broken. He only asks that we submit to the breaking and trust Him with it.” They recount the circumstances of each loss, including the death of Evans’s wife, Lois, who died of cancer. Evans shares that, though his family and many others continued to pray for Lois’s healing, he surrendered to God’s sovereignty. Evans’s children, meanwhile, celebrate their mother’s legacy with fond recollections of family meals and celebrations, and explain that the book is the fulfillment of their mother’s desire that they work together and combine the strengths of their individual ministries. Any Christian who has wrestled with loss will appreciate this message of hope. (Nov.)