A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness

A writer for Christianity Today’s Her Meneutics blog, Graves ponders suffering and how God uses it to shape lives. She offers thoughts on times in the desert and how those times of solitude can produce an oasis that gives people of faith better self-understanding and a closer relationship with God. She clings to God during her trials, even from a very early age, when her drunken father made for an unstable childhood, and draws strength from the practice whenever she finds herself in stressful times. She suggests in this two-part exposition (the book is separated into “This Wilderness Life” and “Wilderness Gifts”) that Christians should do the same when encountering brokenness and worry over things like finances, moving to a new town, waiting for test results or any time awaiting an answer in what feels like silence. More details about how she was able to put faith first, as well as more stories from people with broader life experience, might have made her case more persuasively. Her reflections need ripening. (June)