When I saw the cover of the German version of Remarkable Hope, I contacted Heidi to ask her to translate. There was a campfire drawing on the cover, and I was a little confused. But as soon as Heidi translated the title for me, I understood. And you will too after reading her story below.

Translations can be tricky.

When I first came to the United States over thirty years ago, I had my share of translation mishaps. Some were hilarious, others embarrassing. Some misunderstandings were downright dangerous, like the time I didn’t grasp the concept of “hard” lemonade and opened one in the store parking lot. I bought the expensive treat on a grocery errand, and I thought “hard” meant organic. I stuck the bottle in my cup holder and sipped on my ignorance all the way home.  

When we move thoughts from one language to another, the meaning and original intent can easily get lost. However, I found the opposite to be the case when I saw the cover of Remarkable Hope in German. In reading the title, Leuchtfeuer der Hoffnung (Beacon of Hope), powerful images flooded my mind. The German word “Leutchfeuer” is a compound noun. It’s made of light and fire. While the meaning is translated into “beacon,” the word-for-word translation, light-fire, has much more depth. 

I remembered Samwise in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how he climbed the side of a mountain, intent on setting a fire to communicate hope to allies far away. Then, I thought of Simone, my wonderful German friend. I wished we could have read this together. Within the short time we knew each other, she challenged me to let God use my knowledge of German as a beacon of hope for her, to set a light and a fire. 

I met Simone a little over a year ago at an outdoor church service during the pandemic. In the previous months, many of us had grown weary of the church’s live feed on Sunday morning. We longed for an in-person gathering. Now, the park was filled with strangers and regular church attendees. Despite the awkwardness and distance, we all enjoyed connecting with people in face-to-face conversations.

I was about to sink into my camping chair when a friend waved me down. Six feet behind him followed a stout woman I did not recognize.

“Hey Heidi, have you met Simone? She is from Germany,” he said.

Simone, a mature blond, politely waved her hand as if to shake it and smiled, “Hallo. I am Simone.” Her words were wrapped in a strong German accent. “You know this church is not very friendly,” she whispered. I felt a tinge offended. I had been on the welcoming team for years and prided myself in making newcomers feel at home.

However, I admired her straightforwardness and that she did not care about her accent. I had always felt insecure when people asked me where I was from as soon as they picked up on my mispronounced words.

We decided to talk more after church.

We talked a lot. Over the course of the following year, our relationship grew into a deep friendship. We were grateful to share life in our native heart language. Simone, in her early sixties, told me about changes she wanted for her life and her deep desire for God. She was curious about our church and what we believed. She had endless questions about the validity of the Bible, doubt and faith, and most of all, salvation.

Her questions made me dig deep into my own beliefs. When she came to our mid-week Bible study, she found women eager to make her comfortable. Eventually, everyone came to love her for her honesty, her sincere questions, and her kind and generous heart. We gladly ate the German treats she brought to our study. With sticky fingers, we helped her peel open the tightly stuck-together pages of her new Bible.

Then one day, while sitting at my dining room table, over some German cake and coffee, she decided to give her life to Christ. It was the first time I had prayed in German with anyone who wanted to surrender to Jesus. I came to faith in my mid-twenties while living in the U.S., and I learned about a relational God in English, my second language. I had to dig up German vocabulary, which had been tucked away in my heart all those years. Visiting with Simone challenged me and made me think about how to communicate faith in my mother tongue. The more I spoke, the easier those words came. Soon I felt something break in my soul–a deep understanding of God’s desire to use my knowledge of German.

 About six months into Simone’s new life in Christ, things unraveled for her whole family. Her husband also had come to faith in Christ just before their lives were turned upside down. As if the script had been taken straight from the book of Job, bad news seemed to come daily. Family and home, jobs and pets, all were affected.

“Why is this happening? We just gave our lives to Jesus? Is it because we trusted Him?” Simone asked. I had no answers to her questions.

One day, after some medical tests to find out why she had been experiencing severe pain, Simone heard the worst news yet.  

Liver metastases. Secondary liver cancer. Stage four colon cancer.

The prognosis was grim and brought even more questions. I had fewer answers. During those days, we both were driven deeper into the Scriptures and closer to the heart of Jesus. We spoke and prayed in German even more frequently than before.

“It feels good to speak from the heart,” she said in German. Her doubt, like her cancer, was trying to consume her.  

Slowly I saw God’s plan of hope unfold. He was using my faith and our common language to do a greater work in both of us. I realized it wasn’t what we had in common that brought her comfort, but who we had come to know. We saw how God had drawn her and her husband to Himself to prepare them for the trials ahead. Before her suffering began, Jesus was well aware that Simone and her husband needed to know the God who was with them. By his grace, God had revealed himself at just the right time.

In the last chapter of Remarkable Hope, Shauna invites us to travel alongside two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The friends leave the city of Jerusalem heartbroken, believing their master is buried in a tomb. They have more questions than answers. Hadn’t Jesus said he would never leave them? Why did he have to die? How could he be the Savior if he couldn’t even save himself?

While they were walking away from uncertainty back to what they knew, Jesus appeared to them. The Scriptures say they were kept from recognizing him. In his supernatural disguise, Jesus spoke to the friends about himself and how he is revealed in all the Scriptures. After he ate with them, they saw clearly who this stranger was and they were overcome with joy. Looking back on their conversation, they realized his words and presence had set their hearts ablaze—he had set a light and a fire by his presence.

When I remember Simone’s hard, painful walk, I realize I have limited answers. But while we were all trying to understand, Jesus made himself known to us through the Scriptures. He gave Simone a friend who spoke her heart language. He used my insecurities and questions to point to himself. He surrounded her with a group of loving friends. And through his word and work, Jesus was present in the trial with Simone. What a God! He takes the smoldering disappointments in our hearts and sets them afire – not only for our own good but also for the good of anyone who watches.

I think Simone would have loved reading Remarkable Hope in German. I smile, thinking about how we could have read it together. But she is gone now, experiencing what I long for, namely seeing Jesus face-to-face. I am left to look around at a world that needs light and fire more than ever. It still needs Jesus and his people to bring his remarkable hope – in the U.S. and in Germany.

I have lived in the United States for over three decades. In that time, I have learned much about the English language. But through my friendship with Simone, I have also learned that God is willing to use whatever we offer him, even our greatest insecurities about how we speak and which language we use.

I’m grateful Simone helped me embrace my first language and share Christ through it. And because of Jesus, I have a light-fire of hope—a distant beacon of assurance—that someday Simone and I will visit again in the presence of Jesus with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

The post Of Remarkable Hope and Beacons of Fire appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

It was a revelation.

But even if the traditional school schedule rhythms don’t influence your schedule, August still signals the start of something new.

If your Bible Study or Book Club is looking for a new book to study this fall, I’ve created some supplemental material for Remarkable Hope that will make it easy (and fun!) to read with a group.

If you have placed your hope in Christ but feel sucker-punched by life, Remarkable Hope offers biblical assurance of God’s promises, no matter your situation.

As you learn how Jesus revives hope, you will:

• Gain confidence in God’s good plan for you.
• Learn how Jesus transforms devastation into renewed hope.
• Find a purpose and plan for the struggle you’re facing.
• Revive your hope through inspiring Bible stories, instructive reflections, and guided prayers.

​You’ll be transported to the scenes where Jesus restored hope to the hopeless. When Mary and Martha lead Jesus to Lazarus’ tomb, and when Jairus begs the Savior to hurry, you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with them, witnessing Christ’s miracles.

Christ’s tenderness to them will shed a hopeful light on your own disappointment. You’ll gain confidence in God’s unseen plan for your life and be reminded of his enduring presence.

For anyone who has tasted bitter disappointment yet longs for the sweetness of promises fulfilled, Remarkable Hope will lead you to the certainty of hope that does not disappoint.

When the book was released, I hosted an online book club on Facebook for my launch team, where we discussed each chapter. I shared some thoughts that I didn’t include in the book, and I talked about why I made certain creative choices when retelling the stories.

One member of my launch team said, “These videos are so valuable! I hope you’ll make them available to all your readers.”

I thought that was a great idea, and I ended up recording a short video for each chapter with my iPhone right here in my office. I also created a book discussion guide.

The best part? It’s all free!

If you’re looking for a new book for your Bible study or book club to start this fall, sign up below, and I’ll email you the free goodies:

• 10 videos, one for each chapter (5-8 minutes each)
• Discussion guide for individuals or groups (3-5 questions per chapter)
• Printable bookmark
• Printable wall art of Romans 12:12 (8×10”—Mine is framed in my kitchen)
• Spotify playlist with hopeful songs curated by me
• 6-Day YouVersion Bible App Devotional—Jesus Revives Hope

Your group will only need to purchase the book.

When I’m searching for a study for a Sunday School class or Bible study, I always prefer short videos by the author because it leaves time for group discussion. And that’s where the real-life, boots-on-the-ground fellowship happens. It’s how women get to know one another and point each other towards Jesus in specific ways.

I visited one such group in June. They had been meeting over Zoom for eight weeks, and about half of them had never met in real life. They invited me to visit their first post-lockdown, in-person meeting, and it was a tremendous honor.

It was a gift to see how God is working to draw women to himself, IN REAL LIFE! Jesus was not locked down for a moment! And I could see the evidence sitting around the table.

Whether you’re in person or on Zoom, you can get all the free goodies here. (Even if you just want to preview them to see if it’s right for your group.)

​If I can help you facilitate a group in any way, please contact me at shauna@shaunaletellier.com. I respond to every email I receive.

The post Need a New Bible Study this Fall? appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

You’ll love her right away.

She and her team have written a book that would make a fabulous gift for yourself or a mom in your life for Mother’s Day, and she’s graciously shared an adapted excerpt with us today.

“I show up at the sink to an insurmountable pile of dishes. Nothing is scraped. Nothing is sorted. My limited counter space is overrun with remnants of our previous two meals—room-temp food, wadded up napkins between plates, stray silverware, and pans that need to be soaked. I pause and take a deep breath, aware that the only way to get out of this mess is to travel through it, bit by bit, plate by plate.

To my left, worship music plays softly through the Bluetooth speaker inside the cupboard of drinking glasses. I swing the cabinet door open so melodies can surround my weary soul as I swipe plates with a sponge and place them into the dishwasher. I’m hoping the cares I’ve brought to the kitchen will wash down the drain along with the bits of food I scrape into the disposal.

I’ve never been great at staying ahead of the mayhem, and as we’ve added kids to our family, it has become increasingly difficult to keep a tidy kitchen (let alone a tidy house). Most of the time I hobble along, performing whatever damage control is necessary to get through the day. Despite my best efforts, I constantly feel like our home is in disarray.

Like my kitchen, I am a mess inside—anxious, easily irritated by the squabbles of seven spirited children, weighed down by worries common to mothers everywhere.

Not a single thing I do in the course of a day leads to a satisfying end. I always have more toys to pick up, more laundry loads to flip, and more dishes to wash.

I turn up the volume loud enough to drown out the normal sounds of the kids, but not so loud I won’t be able to hear if an emerging situation requires my attention. Words of hope fill my ears, and the music draws me into another world. I replace noise with noise, but the worshipful words are a solace and an invitation to quiet my heart before God while my hands do the work they know. I am transported to a place where I am both physically present in an ordinary kitchen task and attentive to a deeper exchange between His spirit and mine.

When I show up at my kitchen sink, God shows up, too.”

~Excerpt adapted from “Worship at the Kitchen Sink” by Emily Sue Allen; this is an essay from Strong, Brave & Beautiful: Stories of Hope for Moms in the Weeds by writers from KindredMom.com

Maybe it’s the fact we have nine people living in our house, but it seems to me like there are always piles of dishes in my sink––even if I just finished doing all the dishes. The constant nature of the food cycle––prepare, serve, store, cleanup––is just one of many duties of caregiving that has required more energy than I typically have in reserve…not to mention I’d rather be reading, walking, or doing something creative with my time.

Still, I have come to believe it is a grace from God to draw me back to that humble place at the kitchen sink to repeat the same simple steps every day––a living liturgy to remind me that strength is cultivated by faithfulness. This simple, ordinary cycle is more than a hum-drum task meant to wear me out.

This basic household routine is part of a greater reality: faithfulness is required for flourishing.

For me, it’s less about the dishes and more about the truth of servanthood. Serving my family is not always gratifying. Sometimes it is mundane. Sometimes it is annoying. But when I set aside my boredom and annoyance to do what is needed, I can see the purpose in my service. I am nourishing my children’s hearts and bodies.

I am modeling a good work ethic and what it looks like to care about basic needs with love. I am expanding my children’s understanding of the effort involved in serving them, and I’m teaching them––meal after meal––how to be grateful.

I am empowering my older children to join me in the process of scraping, rinsing, and putting away dishes, demonstrating how we all should be moving toward age-appropriate responsibility for the stewardship of our lives.

I will still let out a sigh when I see the next obnoxious pile of dishes taunting me from my kitchen sink, but that won’t stop me from getting my hands wet to repeat the cleaning process yet again. This is about more than dishes. This is how God grows my character.

In the humble and repetitive chores of caregiving, I am reminded that God continually cares for me. He strengthens me to do what is necessary. He equips me as challenges arise, and He stays with me even after the clean dishes are put away.

When I faithfully serve my family, God nourishes me for the tasks and produces a flourishing life in my family and in me.

The post How to Flourish with a Sink Full of Dishes appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

After some correspondence, he traveled from Scotland to the US for a visit. Her friends–he described them as athletic young men–offered to take Alistair waterskiing to show him a good time.

Alistair regaled us with the most hilarious and self-deprecating description of his first experience on skis by comparing himself to the Americans who had ample waterskiing experience. He closed his story by saying, “But all those American water skiers fell to the Scotsman’s pen.” He won her heart, not with water tricks, but with tender words.

If you’ve heard Alistair Begg preach, you know that besides being a solid minister of the gospel of Jesus, he is a masterful wordsmith, captivating storyteller, and a somewhat self-deprecating humorist.

In addition to all that, he is extremely well-read. So when one student from our class asked him what books he’d recommend, his answer surprised us.

He said, “People are your books.”

I’ve never forgotten it. Begg wasn’t denigrating reading. He was elevating the people God loves.

We learn how God works in the world by reading our Bibles. But we watch his work as we listen to, or read about, God’s faithfulness in the real-life muck and mud of an individual’s life.

I’ve read several Christian memoirs this year that I can highly recommend. In each one, God’s mind-blowing faithfulness and guidance are on display in full color.

I’ll add one caveat. In most books I love, there seems to be an element of major tragedy. Maybe that’s true of all great stories, but I’m offering you fair warning that these are not varnished Christian tales. Each story demonstrates what we learn at Christmas: God came down to the dirtiest and most uncomfortable places to invite people to himself. 

As always, I’d love to hear your book recommendations. What are your favorite memoirs?

{NOTE: Each of the links below is an affiliate link, which means that if you buy the book through my link to Amazon, they will pay me a few cents for recommending it but you will not be charged any extra.}

Becoming Elizabeth Elliot, by Ellen Vaughn

When I was introduced to Elizabeth Elliot’s books in college, I found her writing and personality to be so austere that I felt she lived on a different planet. She struck me as unsympathetic, stoic, and staunchly loyal to the conservative Christian norms of her day.

And while that might have been partially true, her journals reveal she was wonderfully human. She struggled to contain passionate emotions of love as well as anger. Despite her seemingly impenetrable exterior, her feelings could be hurt. She prayed prayers that seemed “unanswered,” and yet she was undoubtedly in love with and committed to Jesus Christ. She was far ahead of her time in many ways, and her intellectual fortitude and clear thinking weren’t fully appreciated or utilized in her day.

Vaughn’s stellar writing paints an honest portrait of a woman’s long, continuous, faithful, and often confounding walk with Christ. I highly, highly recommend it. I listened to the audiobook first and then bought the hardcover because I loved it so much.

Where the Light Fell, by Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey has long been a favorite of mine. He asks questions many Christians are afraid to explore. Yancey’s honest investigation always proves that Christ is faithful and gracious, even when his people are not.

Where the Light Fell is the raw and gritty story of Yancey’s upbringing in a fundamentalist, racist family, church, and community. He does not polish his own character or the circumstances that shaped him. Instead, we get to see the events that built the writer who would ask hard questions and find them answered by God’s grace to us in Christ. His life’s story shows us that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

Yancey has written, “I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else” (What’s so Amazing About Grace, preface).

I’m grateful for all of Yancey’s careful research, truth-telling, and stellar writing.

The Cross and the Switchblade, by David Wilkerson

I’d heard of this title many times throughout the years, but I had no idea what it was about. When I discovered it was co-written with the same authors who helped Corrie Ten Book write The Hiding Place (another favorite memoir!), I snatched it up.

I was not disappointed. Tragedy catapulted David Wilkerson into action, and his reliance on God’s clear direction was at once refreshing and shocking.

From the back cover: “David Wilkerson was just a young preacher in the Pennsylvania hills when he was stunned by a new calling from God: go to New York City to speak to seven young gang members on trial for murder.

But something much greater was to come. Once in New York, David was inspired to stay for a lifetime of helping troubled teenagers get free of drugs and crime. With the word of God in his ears, he founded an inner-city ministry still known as the Teen Challenge to change their paths and alter thousands of lives forever.”

While Wilkerson taught the “filling of the Holy Spirit” differently than I’ve been taught, the evidence of God’s leading and effective work in Wilkerson’s life and ministry is undeniable.

If you’ve read or end up reading any of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Favorite Christian Memoirs from Past Years

Murder, Motherhood, and Miraculous Grace: A True Story, by Deborah Moerke (A story of foster care and supernatural forgiveness)

Where I End, by Katherine Elizabeth Clark (A story of God’s faithfulness through life-altering injury.)

The Peace Child, by Don Richardson (A story about bringing the gospel to people with no prior knowledge of Christ through the analogies in their drastic cultural traditions.)

What should I add to my to-be-read list in 2022? Please email or comment to let me know!

The post Great Christian Memoirs for 2022 appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

How do you decide what to read next?

Years ago, I resolved to keep track of the books I read. Since then, Goodreads has come along and made keeping track a whole lot easier. (If you’re on Goodreads, let’s connect here!)

If you need a few recommendations to begin your reading year with a bang, I’ve listed my favorite books from my three favorite genres below. {Each link is an “affiliate link,” which means, if you click the cover image and buy it, Amazon will pay me a few cents for recommending it to you, but you will not be charged anything extra.}

If you read any of these, I’d love to know what you thought!

Memoir

If I had to pick a favorite genre, it would be memoir. This year I heartily recommend three. None of them are new releases, but each one is beautifully written and had a powerful impact on me. I’m not sure why, but the memoirs I love most always include some profound tragedy. So when I say, “I LOVED this book!” I don’t mean I loved the devastation. I simply mean I was powerfully impacted by God’s penchant for bringing beauty from ashes.

I hear about this story back in 2016 when the literary agent gave a little teaser about this profoundly redemptive story. But I didn’t know the first tragic scenes took place just a few hours from my house in a town I visit several times each year.

From the back cover: In 1928, 16-year-old Minka was on a picnic in the woods when she was assaulted and raped. And suddenly this innocent farm girl―who still thought the stork brought babies―was pregnant. The story that follows has been almost a hundred years in the making. After a lifetime of separation, Minka whispered an impossible prayer for the first time: Lord, I’d like to see Betty Jane before I die. What happened next was a miracle. Written by Cathy LaGrow (Minka’s granddaughter), The Waiting brings three generations of this most unusual family together over the course of a century in a story of faith that triumphs, forgiveness that sets us free, and love that never forgets.

Fire Road: The Napalm Girl’s Journey through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace

Fire Road was recommended by a reader after I posted by 2018 list. It only took me two years to get to this one, and it did not disappoint. I remember seeing this iconic photo when I was growing up. Now I know it’s origin and “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey might have said.

From the back cover: Get out! Run! We must leave this place! They are going to destroy this whole place! Go, children, run first! Go now!

These were the final shouts nine year-old Kim Phuc heard before her world dissolved into flames―before napalm bombs fell from the sky, burning away her clothing and searing deep into her skin. It’s a moment forever captured, an iconic image that has come to define the horror and violence of the Vietnam War. Kim was left for dead in a morgue; no one expected her to survive the attack. Napalm meant fire, and fire meant death.

Against all odds, Kim lived―but her journey toward healing was only beginning…

Fire Road is the true story of how she found the answer in a God who suffered Himself; a Savior who truly understood and cared about the depths of her pain. Fire Road is a story of horror and hope, a harrowing tale of a life changed in an instant―and the power and resilience that can only be found in the power of God’s mercy and love.

Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery in the 20th Century

Kurt’s cousin has been telling me about this one for years. When I was looking for a Christian memoir for my boys to read this summer, she recommended it again. It was a beautiful reminder that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for every tribe and nation. Christ has already laid the inroads to the human heart, and he empowers willing servants, like Don Richardson, to explain the gospel in culturally meaningful ways. My 15-year-old son especially enjoyed it.

From the back cover: In 1962, Don and Carol Richardson risked their lives to share the gospel with the Sawi people of New Guinea. Peace Child told their unforgettable story of living among these headhunting cannibals who valued treachery through  fattening victims with friendship before the slaughter. God gave Don and Carol the key to the Sawi hearts via a redemptive analogy from their own mythology.  The peace child became the secret to unlocking a value system that existed through generations over centuries, possibly millenniums, of time. This new edition of Peace Child will inspire a new generation of readers who need to hear this unforgettable story and the lessons it teaches us about communicating Christ in a meaningful way to those around us.

Nonfiction

Yes, I know, Memoir is nonfiction, but here are two Christian nonfiction recommendations I simply couldn’t leave out.

Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

Strangely, this book was recommended to me by Amazon. It was in that long line of “customers who bought this book also bought…” I rarely pay attention to those, but this title kept popping up. I don’t remember what stood out that made me click “buy now.” Perhaps it was simply God’s grace because Gentle & Lowly was hands-down the best book I read this year, and probably the best one I’ve read in a decade. If you read my October post, The Gospel According to Halloween, then you’ve already heard me gush.

Some books make you want to change yourself or change your world. This book mades me want to kneel in adoration and worship Christ.

From the introduction: This is a book about the heart of Christ. Who is he? Who is he really? What is most natural to him? What ignites within him most immediately as he moves toward sinners and sufferers? What flows out most freely, most instinctively? Who is he?

This book is written for the discouraged, the frustrated, the weary, the disenchanted, the cynical, the empty. Those running on fumes. Those whose Christian lives feel like constantly running up a descending escalator. Those of us who find ourselves thinking: “How could I mess up that bad—again?”

It is for that increasing suspicion that God’s patience with us is wearing thin. For those of us who know God loves us but suspect we have deeply disappointed him. Who have told others of the love of Christ yet wonder if—as for us—he harbors mild resentment. Who wonder if we have shipwrecked our lives beyond what can be repaired. Who are convinced we’ve permanently diminished our usefulness to the Lord. Who have been swept off our feet by perplexing pain and are wondering how we can keep living under such numbing darkness. Who look at our lives and know how to interpret the data only by concluding that God is fundamentally parsimonious.

It is written, in other words, for normal Christians. In short, it is for sinners and sufferers. How does Jesus feel about them? (Ortlund, Dane C. (2020-03-17T23:58:59). Gentle and Lowly . Crossway. Kindle Edition.)

Everyday Faithfulness: The Beauty of Ordinary Perseverance in a Demanding World (The Gospel Coalition)

Everyday Faithfulness reminded me that nourishment from God’s word is more like the steady drip of an IV than an occasional shot of steroids to cure what’s ailing you. Marshal cites real life examples of women who remained faithful to Christ through the hardships and long season of life.

Tim Challies, a pastor, author, and blogger who recently and suddenly lost his son, wrote, “Learn your doctrine in peacetime so you can deploy it in war. When you know who God is you can trust him for what he does.” Glenna Marshall’s book embraces that sentiment.

From the back cover: What does Christian faithfulness look like when life feels unpredictable, hard, or just plain ordinary? We want to follow Jesus, but it’s easy to become more focused on our present situation than on a long view of faithfulness. Working through the unique challenges that come with seasons of waiting, caretaking, suffering, worry, spiritual dryness, and more, Everyday Faithfulness delves into practical ways to build habits into everyday life that will aid in spiritual growth throughout a lifetime.

Fiction

Neither of these would be categorized as “Christian Fiction,” but in both stories, the characters wrestle with the circumstances God inexplicably allows. Both books were beautifully written. And in keeping with my knack for choosing stories that emerge from tragedy, these two offer heartbreak, redemption and surprise.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel

From the back cover:

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.

Cussy’s not only a book woman, however, she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.

Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.

This Tender Land: A Novel

From the back cover:

In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.

Your turn!

What were your favorites this year? Comment below, or email me!

The post Book Recommendations for 2021 appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

I was zipping around town, feeling super productive and on top of my taxi-mom game. So, I was slightly annoyed when the large red pickup in front of me slowed to a crawl.

Our town isn’t large, but we were on a main street. It runs past the state Capitol, the beautifully landscaped Capitol Lake, the middle school, and a myriad of government buildings. But all of that was in my rear-view mirror when the break lights jerked me from my vehicular efficiency.

I’m not one to road-rage, but I have been known to mumble while driving.

What are you doing?

Go. Go. Go.

But the big red pickup did not go.

The driver could have veered left and driven past the Governor’s mansion. He could have veered right to meet up with the highway that leads out of town.

Instead, he pulled over right where that main street forks and parked beside the triangular patch of grass between the two routes.

I was slightly alarmed when the driver’s side door opened. I wondered if I was about to become a victim of small-town road rage.

Was I following too close?

Had he seen me pound my steering wheel?

Maybe he could sense my irritation.

But he waved me around him, and I carefully passed him on the left.

“What on earth is he doing?” I mumbled.

As I glanced into my rear-view mirror, I saw him helping a little girl out of the passenger side. He took her by the hand, and they walked through the grass at the awkward and busy fork-in-the-road to view the monument standing at the center. 

For 17 years, I’ve driven by that monument, but all I’ve seen was a triangular patch of poorly placed grass. I have never stopped to view the statue or read the plaque. I can’t tell you who it honors or what it commemorates because I’ve been too hurried to notice, much less stop.

A monument is something we build or display in memory of a person or event. It’s meant to be a gift to posterity so we can give the gift of honor and retell the story.

But if we never stop to look, read, or remember, we won’t properly honor the person or be able to tell others what happened there.

When God stopped the Jordan River so his people could enter the promised land, he told Joshua to have 12 men bring a stone out of the river to create a memorial, or a monument, so they could remember what God had done. 

Joshua told the people that in the future, when their children ask, ‘What do these stones mean?” they’d be reminded to recount what God had done there (See Joshua 4:1-9).

Monuments help us remember.

‘Tis the season for many long-remembered traditions to surface. We string lights on evergreens. On the plains of the Midwest, even the cottonwoods are good candidates for a Christmas light display.

Retailers run sales on snow blowers and wrapping paper. Organizations host fundraisers and coat drives. Kids thumb through catalogs and make helpful lists for parents and Santa. Parents hide unwrapped gifts in nooks and crannies until they have a chance to wrap them.

Year after year, we happily, and sometimes frantically, whiz through the season without stopping to remember and tell about the reason our monumental traditions exist.

We plunged into this year with plans for a “2020 vision for the future.” But it turns out we couldn’t even see the forced slow-down that was just a few weeks away. We collectively pulled over on the thoroughfare of our schedules and parked for a while. 

Your internal driver might be banging on the steering wheel of your calendar chanting, “Go. Go. Go.” But while you’re already slowed down, maybe you can park beside a monument you normally pass, even if the world zooms by.

Why do we celebrate Christmas? What was so monumental about it that we still celebrate? Who was there?

If we peer through history’s frosted window and look at Scripture, maybe we can get some answers.

If you’re ready to view the monuments that tell the story of what God has done for you, join me this month in reading Remarkable Advent.

Every day we’ll stop at one scene in the story of Christ’s birth. We’ll slow down to see who was there and what might have happened. We’ll honor the people who participated and the God who orchestrated it.

But we’ll find that we are the recipients of the gift that came to Bethlehem on that very first Christmas before anybody knew what Christmas was.

Slow down. Park yourself where you can reflect on God’s monumental goodness to us through the birth of Jesus.

If you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few suggestions.

1. Start with Scripture: Read Luke 2 and Matthew 1. If you’ve read it a million times and it sounds unremarkable, try reading it in a different version. Read it out loud or have someone read it aloud to you. You can also listen on your Bible App.
2.  Read a daily Advent devotional to keep your heart and mind focused on the reason we celebrate. May I recommend Remarkable Advent  (affiliate link), a 25-day devotional by me? Many families have used it as a daily read-aloud, and children as young as 6 have enjoyed it. (People as old as 78 have also enjoyed it…I’m looking at you, uncle Fred!)
3. Stick with your plan, and don’t quit just because you “missed a day” (I’m preaching to myself here!)

Don’t let anyone hurry you past Christmas, because Jesus isn’t merely worth remembering, he’s worth worshiping.

Come, and let us adore him.

Find my other Advent & Christmas book recommendations here. 

The post A Monumental Christmas appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

If you grew up hearing that Halloween was the celebration of evil, you might feel as shocked as I did when the question was posed to me. When I considered how the two holidays might relate to the gospel, the thought of Halloween being a superior picture seemed downright heretical.

Until I took my youngest son trick-or-treating.  

Costume design is not my forte, so my son dressed in his baseball pants, his team t-shirt, donned his ball glove, and went as a baseball player. As we strolled down the sidewalks, I counted about 27 princesses and nearly as many ninja warriors. A walking vending machine wobbled around us as we stepped up to ring a doorbell, and a few pixelated Minecraft characters flew across the yard, taking a shortcut to the next house.

Considering my own lack of costume-creativity, I was enthralled with the artful parade of of characters.

But there were also scary and downright disgusting costumes that made me want to cover the eyes of every tiny trick-or-treater on the street.

Hordes of people trickled down the sidewalks and streets, stumbling over cumbersome costumes, running door to door.

Head wounds.
Scars.
Feigned diseases.
A man with a supposed gouged eyeball.
Creatures limping and growling.

I stepped back for the wide view.

It occurred to me that Jesus’ earthly ministry was probably a little more like Halloween than I like to imagine.

I thought of Jesus and his disciples disembarking on Galilee’s eastern shore when they were startled by a mad man running and screaming at them. Broken chains dangled from his limbs, and his naked body bore a web of scars and scabs from self-inflicted wounds (Mark 5:1-8).

Disgusting.

Another time, after a horrific night at sea when his disciples mistook him for a ghost, Jesus stepped ashore at a place called Gennesaret. When the people there recognized him as the one who had fed a multitude on the other side of the lake, they brought all their sick friends, family, and neighbors to him.

Gross.

Parents brought him their children suffering from hacking coughs, oozing sores, injured limbs and faces. Desperate sufferers cried, moaning and hollering so they wouldn’t be overlooked. Mothers carried lethargic babies, and fathers cradled skeleton-like children.

People on the verge of physical and spiritual death flocked to Jesus. (Mark 6:45-56). They came in hordes from all over the surrounding country, begging him for help and hope. (Matthew 4:23-25)

And what did Jesus do when the helpless and harassed came running down the streets and shores to him?

He wasn’t disgusted. He had compassion on them. To him, they were like sheep without a shepherd, and as The Good Shepherd, he welcomed every desperate soul. He also taught them, spoke about the kingdom of God, healed their sick, and changed them (Matthew 9:35-36).

In Dane Ortlund’s new book, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, he shines a glorious spotlight on the heart of Christ and who he is. Ortlund unpacks the biblical case for Christ’s most natural response to needy people who come to Jesus for help. “The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms” (p.19).

Ortlund writes, “[Christ] does not cringe at reaching out and touching dirty sinners and numbed sufferers. Such embrace is precisely what he loves to do. He cannot bear to hold back. We naturally think of Jesus touching us the way a little boy reaches out to touch a slug for the first time—face screwed up, cautiously extending an arm, giving a yelp of disgust upon contact, and instantly withdrawing” (p. 24).

But, he continues, “…if the actions of Jesus are reflective of who he most deeply is, we cannot avoid the conclusion that it is the very fallenness which he came to undo that is most irresistibly attractive to him” (p. 30).

Ortlund expounds, describes, and biblically proves that the very heart of Christ (as well as what he has done) is the “wonderful extra good news” we sang about so many years ago in Sunday school.

Some books make you want to change yourself or change your world. This book made me want to kneel in adoration and worship Christ.

I don’t know if Jesus would have had a bowl of candy at his house or not. He never claimed a permanent earthly address. But I know that if he had, the line at his place would have been long because Jesus drew a crowd everywhere he went (Matthew 4:25).

The line wouldn’t have been moving fast, either. It was his life’s work to address physical and spiritual needs, and that takes time. His miracles weren’t “an interruption of the natural order but the restoration of the natural order. We are so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain, and death seem natural. In fact, they are the interruption” (p. 31).

I suppose His disciples would try to hurry the line or disperse the children. Parents worried about getting home before dark might urge their children to “skip that house.” But I bet Jesus would tell them all, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (Mark 9:37). 

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

Jesus was never one to miss a teachable moment.

Whether we admit it or not, without Christ, we are spiritually helpless and harassed. Without Christ, we are the sinners and sufferers. It’s just that in the 21st century, we’ve figured out how to dress it up and rename it so we don’t come across as spiritual beggars–people unable to earn what we desperately need.

But the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.

Our best hope is to come to Jesus with empty hands, offering him nothing as payment for what we need and cannot buy:

Grace.

Mercy.

Forgiveness.

Everything that flows from his gentle and lowly heart.

And to everyone who receives him, to those who believe on his name, he GIVES the right to become children of God (John 1:12). No matter how you’re dressed. No matter how sick you’ve been, or how desperate you feel. He gives to everyone willing to receive what he is handing out.

Come empty. Leave full. Be changed by a Savior who delights in showing compassion and mercy to those who know they need it.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

The post The Gospel According to… Halloween? appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

Two year ago, I scribbled a sloppy list of books to read. Amazingly, it’s still on my desk. Titles have been added and checked off (and a few random phone numbers languish in the margins). The biggest challenge has been deciding what to read next.

Audible and Overdrive (both audiobook platforms) are the ONLY reasons I’ve been able to maintain a robust (for me anyway) reading life.

In 2019, my goal was to read two books each month, and I’m thrilled to say, I have some great ones to recommend.

Memoir was my genre of choice this year, but not on purpose. As I reviewed my list, I realized my favorites in 2019 were memoirs. It’s funny, because in the publishing industry, the word on the street is that “memoirs don’t sell.”

So without further ado, I present my recommendations by genre, beginning, of course, with Memoir.

{Pssst…All of the following book cover images are affiliate links. That means if you click on the cover and end up buying the book from Amazon, they will pay me a few cents for telling you about the book }

Memoir

Five years ago, I learned about this story and have been waiting for the book to release. The author has become a friend, and in October I wrote about meeting her. Deb’s book reminds me what it means to be created in God’s image, saved by Jesus, and set apart for the good works he’s had in mind for us since before time began (See Ephesians 2:10).

From Amazon’s description: “When Debra Moerke and her husband decided to become foster parents, they never imagined how their lives would change. Debra became especially close to one little girl: four-year-old Hannah. She loved her and did everything she could to help Hannah learn to trust and teach her to feel safe. But when Hannah went back to her birth mother, Karen, it wasn’t long before one of Debra’s worst fears came true.

Overwhelmed with horror and grief, Debra didn’t think she could take anymore, but then she received a phone call from prison. Karen, facing a life sentence, was pregnant, and she had a shocking question to ask . . .

Murder, Motherhood, and Miraculous Grace is an incredible true story of faith, family, and a journey toward seemingly impossible forgiveness. A story that tests the limits of the human heart, it’s ultimately a life-affirming testament to how unconditional love and relentless obedience can transform even the darkest nights into mornings of hope.”

IMPORTANT NOTES: You’ll need a box of tissues and two days. Emotionally difficult to read at points, but the pain is worth the beautiful redemptive ending.

Joey is a beautiful, heartwarming story. I read it in a single day as we were traveling. My boys rolled their eyes as I cried in the airport, so as an act of retribution, I put it on their summer reading list. I don’t think they cried, but they liked it (Shhhh, don’t tell their friends.) Fun piece of book trivia, the same artist designed the covers of Murder, Motherhood and Miraculous Grace and Joey.

From the Back Cover: “With her fledgling horse ranch, Hope Reins, in dire financial trouble, the last thing Kim Tschirret needed was one more problem. But when she met Joey, a former prizewinning jumper who had been abandoned, neglected, and malnourished to the point of blindness, she saw in him the same God-given potential she saw in every abused and abandoned child her ministry was created to serve.

So, despite the challenges that would come with caring for a blind and wounded horse, Kim took a leap of faith and brought Joey home to Hope Reins.

But as Joey struggled to adapt to his new surroundings, trainers, and pasture-mate, the staff’s confidence began to falter. Could Joey learn to trust again―to connect with the children who needed him so badly? What if they couldn’t take care of Joey? And how much longer could they afford to try?

A heartwarming story of loyalty, friendship, and healing, Joey is a profound testament to the power of blind faith.”

IMPORTANT NOTES: You’ll need a few tissues. It’s easy reading so young readers (upper elementary and beyond) can also enjoy.

Fiction

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet had enough heartbreak to keep me invested without being emotionally devastating.

From Goodreads Description: “In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s—Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel’s basement for the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.”

IMPORTANT NOTES: Sweet but not sappy. You may need an occasional tissue. I learned a lot about Chinese American and Japanese American relationships and culture. Very enjoyable.

Nonfiction

When I grow up, I want to write like Malcolm Gladwell. David and Goliath is full of stories, examples, and research which makes the reader question whether “advantages” are really helpful or if perhaps “disadvantages” are more helpful than advantages. Likewise, when is strength actually a hindrance?

The premise was fascinating, as was the introduction where Gladwell examines historical details of the biblical story of David and Goliath. Overall, Gladwell’s empowering findings support the cliché that, truly, anything is possible.

From Goodreads Description: Gladwell “looks at the complex and surprising ways the weak can defeat the strong, the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology, and an array of unforgettable characters around the world, David and Goliath is in many ways the most practical and provocative book Malcolm Gladwell has ever written.”

There’s a lot of noise in the “Christian” mainstream that might lead one to believe that being a Christian means your life will be easy, pain-free, and “inside-outside-upside-downside happy all the time,” to quote an old VBS song. When life turns out the be the opposite of all that, we’re prone to chuck the gospel faster than last year’s fad diet manual.

Glenna’s writing reminds us that God didn’t promise that life with him would be pain free. He promised his continual presence with us in pain and in joy, on Earth and in Heaven.

Glenna is a clear and consistent voice for the good news of Jesus Christ. She prompts us to wonder, What if you don’t have to go looking for God’s presence? What if God’s presence is something you can enjoy all the time?

Goodreads Description: “God’s presence among his people set him apart from the pagan gods of ancient times. His presence on earth as God Incarnate split history in two. And today his presence is one of the most significant means of his goodness to us. Glenna’s own awakening to God’s presence began in the depths of winter. Rereading her journal, she realized that for six months she’d been cataloging all the ways God had abandoned her as she suffered from chronic pain. What if that . . . wasn’t true? Something had to change. Interweaving her own story of faith and doubt amid suffering, Glenna traces the theme of God’s presence from Genesis to Revelation and shows what it means for us in our own daily joys and struggles.”

What were your favorite reads from last year? What’s on your list for this year?

The post Recommended Reads for 2020 appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

By the time we met on that May evening in 2014, I was exhausted. I had driven eight hours, located registration, lodging, dining and classrooms, and attended a pre-conference session. When the first key-note speaker that evening was finished, I unpacked my rickety Honda and hauled my stuff up the stairs to our room. Since spring in the Rockies can be unpredictable, I had packed for every temperature and was advised to dress in layers. I waddled into the room looking like a coat-tree with bags, backpack, and purse dangling from my arms and a fist full of conference papers.

Deb Moerke was the quintessential professional. She was real estate agent. At age 63 she was fit as a fiddle since she worked out with her personal trainer–her daughter—every Thursday. I was 23 years her junior and huffing and puffing on the sidewalks of Estes Park like I’d been sitting on a couch for the last decade. Colorado’s elevation is always a smack in the face to this flat-lander.

We were both tired but excited to be attending our first writers conference. While we visited, we unpacked, swapped travel stories, and scrolled through family photos on our camera rolls. Eventually we were in pajamas having a grown-up slumber party when Deb politely asked the question you expect when you attend a writer’s conference.

“What are you writing?”

You’re supposed to have a canned answer prepared before you arrive. It should be clever and interesting. If you do it correctly, somebody important will snatch up your book idea like parade candy and make it into a book with your name on it. It’s called an elevator pitch, because you ought to be able to communicate it in the time it takes to ride from the first to the third floor.
But I had not perfected mine. I didn’t really know if I was a writer or if I was just a busy mom with a brain full of silly ideas who saw an opportunity for a kid-free vacation in Colorado. So, I babbled about a series of Bible stories retold based on unlikely examples of faith in the gospels.

“I’d like to title it Remarkable Faith,” I said. We had crawled into our respective beds, continuing our conversation by the light of the lamp between us when I returned the favor and asked, “How about you? What are you writing?”

“Well,” she said, “My husband and I used to be foster parents. We fostered about 140 children over the years.”

And without a fancy elevator pitch she had my full attention. I’m not going to sleep until I hear the end of this, I thought. We talked into the early morning hours. We were both former foster parents. Hers was a story of radical obedience, unfathomable heartbreak, and unbelievable, real-life plot twists. I could hardly sleep. Finally, I drifted off thinking, “Only God could write that story, but it sure needs to be told.”

Five and a half years have passed. Today, it is my absolute pleasure to tell you about Deb’s book, “Murder, Motherhood, and Miraculous Grace: A True Story.”

Her story reminded me of a parable Jesus told. He said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25).

Deb and her husband Al built their house and life on the rock of Jesus Christ. They fostered children, hosted students from a local school for the deaf, and helped struggling friends by temporarily caring for their kids.

If I had known the Moerkes at the time, I would have expected God to spare them the steady rain, threatening floods, and repeated battering by the winds of tragedy.

They were not spared. While they were grieving and reeling, God made a mind-bending request, and Al and Deb said yes.

Their story rocked and inspired me. Murder, Motherhood, and Miraculous Grace is a testament to the undeniable, unexplainable, palpable presence of God. He empowers radical obedience and provides miraculous heart change even when the tragedy remains.

In places, the book is difficult to read. As the title implies, a brutal, and unnoticed, murder occurred. But long after the journalists had printed stories and the judges had hung up their robes, God wove redemption into tragedy, and we are witnesses to His glory.

News feeds are littered with devastating catastrophes, but Deb’s story is proof that God deploys his obedient, ordinary people to tend to the carnage so he can bring redemption from rubble.

I invite you to get your copy here.

Deb’s Interview by Janet Parshall

Deb in her own words:

Debra Moerke and her husband, Al, were foster parents for eighteen years, taking in more than 140 children. Debra has served as the director of women’s and children’s ministries of the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission; the executive director of a Christian crisis pregnancy and counseling center; a jail guard; and a jail chaplain. In 2017 she graduated from Gateway Seminary in California with a certificate in Christian ministries. She is currently an associate real estate broker and owner of Stratton Real Estate. Debra and Al live in Casper, Wyoming and have six children and seven grandchildren.

The post How I Learned about “Murder, Motherhood & Miraculous Grace” appeared first on Shauna Letellier.

Steadfast Hope

Hope. We use the word every day.

I hope it doesn’t rain.

I hope you feel better.

I hope I get to sleep in.

With the best intentions, we cast pleasant desires for ourselves and our friends into the air to vanish. We mean well, but we have precious little control over actual outcomes.

I hope it doesn’t rain. (But there are clouds rolling in.)

I hope you feel better. (But sympathy doesn’t chase away the virus.)

I hope I get to sleep in. (But I have young children.)

Our expressions are also colored with unlikelihood. “Dashed hope” gives way to the announcement that the situation is “beyond hope.” Even when we speak positively, hope is a small “glimmer,” a singular “ray,” or a fine “thread.”

Obedience Means Blessing . . . Doesn’t It?

It is a strange and sad irony that our well-wishes are thin and unreliable. In devastation and unmet expectations, we may mistakenly conclude that our hope in Christ is as slippery as the rain we were hoping not to get.

A Christian marriage is destroyed by abuse, addiction, or rebellion. We know parents who “trained up a child in the way he should go” but found themselves speaking through microphones to their beloved on the other side of bulletproof glass, and we become suspicious of the hope Christ offers.

A series of ongoing calamities can prove just as baffling. For me it was a relocation that was clearly God’s direction. It resulted in a nontraveling work schedule that morphed into an eighty-hour workweek. A policy loophole turned a salaried position into an hourly one that didn’t include overtime pay. A rented house depleted our savings for a down payment and didn’t feel like home. To add insult to injury, I found myself grinding up dog food for eleven yelping puppies in my laundry room while my own newborn preemie lay in an Isolette with a feeding tube in an NICU three hours away.

You could insert your story here too. My string of catastrophes may sound minor if you’ve endured the miseries of chemotherapy, testified in court against a family member, or purchased a tiny casket. We have obeyed God and placed our hope in him. We anticipate a life full of blessings tailored to our preferences. Instead of feeling blessed, we feel sucker punched.

A Mystery Secured

Hope is a pillar of our Christian faith. It is not the vaporous wish tainted by doubt that we employ as we blow out birthday candles. When the apostles wrote about it, they spoke with confident assurance. Peter tells us we have a “living hope.”* The writer of Hebrews calls it an “anchor for the soul.” Dictionary definitions include, “An expectation of what is sure (certain).” Biblical hope is expectant certainty. It is knowing that Christ guarantees everything he has promised and purchased. When Paul prayed for the church in the city of Ephesus he said, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” (Ephesians 1:18) That kind of hope is no evaporating well-wish. It is absolute—a hope that does not put us to shame. (Romans 5:5)

Nothing Less, Nothing More

Hymn writer Edward Mote wrote, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” That’s true, but it’s also built on nothing more. Perhaps that sucker-punched feeling stems from placing our hope in something besides Jesus. Without realizing it, we may have placed our confidence in our spiritual performance to gain the blessings we prefer. Perhaps we’ve counted on a “promise” that was merely inspirational language. The discovery can disorient us. How can we regain our footing?

Throughout the Gospels we read the accounts of people who hoped in Christ and experienced disappointments ranging from confusion to devastation. Think of the four men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They laid their silent request before the whole room. Atrophied limbs screamed for help. When Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven,” every observer was either devastated or incensed. They wanted Jesus to restore the body they could see, but Jesus’ priority was to revive the soul they couldn’t see (See Mark 2:1-12).

Surprised by God

When I began scribbling ideas for this book, I could think of a few stories in the Gospels where people felt let down by Jesus. As I studied, I found many more. Pastor and author John Koessler writes, “If the Gospels are any indication, we might even say that disappointment is a certainty. Read the Gospels with all their sharp edges intact. What are they but a record of disappointment with Jesus on a grand scale?” (The Surprising Grace of Disappointment, p. 48) In each of those sharp-edged stories, Jesus transformed disappointment into unexpected gifts. To look carefully at these Bible stories is to see an ongoing pattern of people being surprised by God’s methods in the most drastic ways. His work was rarely what they anticipated but always immeasurably more than they could have asked or imagined.

The following chapters are biblical vignettes: short retellings of times when people placed their hope in Christ and appeared— at first— to be disappointed by him. Eventually, they experienced ultimate freedom instead of physical freedom, a permanent kingdom instead of a political kingdom, a lifelong mission instead of a mission trip.

In each vignette, I have laid the fabric of fiction over the framework of Scripture. Everything God gave in his word is all we need, and storytelling is a powerful tool to help us remember concepts. Jesus used parables often. To teach the value of God’s kingdom, Jesus told of a man who bought an entire field because of the treasure buried there. To demonstrate God’s response to repentant sinners, Jesus described a father’s lavish celebration over the return of his wasteful son. When we unfurl the backdrop of history, humanity, and a few details of sanctified imagination, a concept comes to life.

I have tried to stay close to the Scriptures with these retellings. Where parallel passages were different, I combined the words and accounts of the Gospel writers into one. Where Scripture was unclear on motives, I imagined one I felt was reasonable in the situation. Where Scripture was silent, I sifted through possibilities presented in a variety of Bible commentaries. Then I wove in a little historic, geographic, political, religious, and cultural detail to provide context for the passage.

I operated with the understanding that these Gospel characters had committed much, if not all, of the first five books of our Bible, as well as Psalms, to memory. There are occasions inside these chapters where I have inserted dialogue or prayers. Although they do not appear in the biblical accounts, I assumed the person would be familiar with the Scripture and hymnbook of their day.

My prayer is that through this series of Bible moments retold, we who have clung to Christ will be greatly encouraged. As we observe his faithful commitment to those who hope in him, we will be wowed by his unseen plan, comforted by his words, and revived by his presence. We will finally chime in with Paul and declare that our “hope does not disappoint” us (Romans 5:5). Because when we are downcast and disturbed, our hope is in God, who gives more than we can imagine but rarely what we expect.

You can read each story in my new book when you order ~> Remarkable Hope: When Jesus Revived Hope in Disappointed People.

{Excerpted from the introduction to Remarkable Hope by Shauna Letellier Copyright © 2019 pp. xi-xviii FaithWords}

[bctt tweet=”What if hope isn’t a flimsy shred? What if it’s a certainty you can count on? Preview the introduction to #RemarkableHope written by @shaunaletellier and published by @FaithWords” username=”shaunaletellier”]

The post Is Hope Steadfast or Slippery? appeared first on Shauna Letellier.