In today’s sermon, God’s Quiet Grace, Jim quoted from Jerry Sittser’s book, A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, including this section that serves as a guide for how Sittser helps the reader to explore such a difficult topic:
Obviously the loss my children and I suffered was irreversible. As I have already written, I will never have Lynda, Diana Jane, or my mother back again. The goodness they contributed to my life (and to so many others) and the goodness we shared together are gone forever. Yet I can say without a moment’s hesitation that my life has been very good since the accident occurred, though not as I had planned or imagined. It is almost a surprise to me, as if learning I had just inherited a million dollars from some cranky uncle whom I had never liked. I find it hard to fathom or explain. I can only say that it is grace, pure grace. How could so much good come out of something that was so unequivocally bad?”
With honestly and great vulnerability, Sittser explores the answer to that question through the pages of this book. Every time I read this book, I am reminded again not only of the depth of suffering in our broken world, but also how God’s quiet and gentle grace is still powerful enough to bring beauty out of ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3).
All is well,
Lisa