We live in a broken world. Amid the daily realities of sickness and isolation, disappointment and pain, it can be profoundly difficult to grasp the real goodness of God. But this is where God breaks into our darkness with beauty. In the wonder of creation, in art or film, story or song, in the kindness of his people and the good they create, God breaks into our pain in a tangible way, teaching us to trust his kindness and hope for his healing. Beauty is a voice singing into our suffering, beckoning us toward restoration.
In This Beautiful Truth, Sarah Clarkson shares her own encounters with beauty in the midst of her decade-long struggle with mental illness, depression, and doubt. In a voice both vulnerable and reflective, she paints a compelling picture of the God who reaches out to us in a real and powerful way through the "taste and see" goodness of what he has made and what he continues to create amid our darkness. "To recognize and trust God's gift in pain," she writes, "empowers us to create and love as powerful witnesses to God's healing love in a hopeless world."
If you want to renew your capacity to recognize and encounter God's beauty in your life, this hope-filled book will show you the way.
"We need more stories like this in the world, more humans willing to carry their readers with them on their own journey through the dark nights we all live and sometimes love and will someday leave."-- Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry
"A portrait of God's grace in the midst of our brokenness. Beautiful in its prose and in the love it reveals, this book is a balm to a world weary of evil."-- Glenn Packiam, associate senior pastor, New Life Church; author of Blessed Broken Given
"Sarah has a gift for making abstract ideas real and tangible. I didn't read about hope in these pages. Instead, I was offered it."-- Christie Purifoy, author of Placemaker and Roots and Sky
Sarah Clarkson is an author and blogger who writes regularly about literature, faith, and beauty at www.sarahclarkson.com. She studied theology (BTh, MSt) at Oxford and is the author or coauthor of six books, including the recent Book Girl, a guide to the reading life. She has an active following on Instagram (@sarahwanders) where she hosts regular live read-alouds from the poems, novels, or essays that bring her courage. She can often be found with a cup of good tea and a book in hand in her home on the English coast, where she lives with her Anglican vicar husband, Thomas, and their two children, Lilian and Samuel.
Baker Books
Pub Date: June 08, 2021
0.1" H x 8.4" L x 5.5" W
224 pages
paperback