Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

faith & spirituality

When it's not the end: The story I never thought I'd tell

Today, I’m a guest writer at my friend Alison’s blog, concluding her months-long series Nothing So Broken. When she asked me back at the end of summer to participate, I wanted to say “yes,” even knowing that saying “yes” meant telling the story I never thought I’d tell.

It’s a love story, and like all good love stories, there’s plenty of conflict. But there’s also hope and grace and forgiveness.

It begins where most fairy tales end: with a wedding.

We stood at the altar, him and me, making promises, pledging our troth, nodding in agreement as our pastor and friend counseled us to lean not on our own understanding.

I was 29. It had been a decade of watching most of my friends get married and begin to have babies, wondering when it would be my turn. Ten
years earlier I had given my life to Christ, and I had expected him to find me a prince worthy of a happily ever after. I had waited what felt like a very
long time, but when I met Phil, I knew from the start something was happening.

Read the rest of the post here.

How to open the door: Review of Let Hope In by Pete Wilson

I didn’t plan it this way, but I’m glad it worked out. It’s the first week of Advent, the time we focus on hope, and Pete Wilson’s book Let Hope In, is an encouraging resource for those of us who find it hard to hope. (Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from Thomas Nelson through the Booksneeze program in exchange for my review.)

let hope inIn it Wilson presents four choices he calls life-changing. I was afraid he was going to oversimplify or oversell it, but it’s clear from the beginning that Wilson is not preaching self-help. In fact, he says it’s impossible. The harder we try to change ourselves, overcome our past or rid our life of sin, the less change we actually experience. His encouragement is to seek transformation instead of transferring blame, to accept that we’re not okay, to trust God rather than aim for people pleasing, and to offer freedom instead of hurt to others.

I didn’t know much about Wilson before I picked up his book, but I find his writing style approachable. He shares stories of his family and friends, of his personal struggles with sin and temptation. He doesn’t speak as a preacher from a high pulpit but as a guide on level ground with fellow travelers.

Hope is a tricky thing, hard to grasp sometimes and even harder to maintain a hold on, but Wilson has given it flesh.

Practical. Realistic. Attainable.

Our choices can be the door that lets hope into our lives.