When the Journey Hurts: Finding Meaning in Suffering for Heart, Mind & Soul

By challenging “our ordinary ways of understanding the world and our place in it,” suffering provides Christians with an opportunity to reevaluate and strengthen their faith, according to this meditative guide. Kapic (You’re Only Human), a theology professor at Covenant College, teams up with Hall and McMartin, psychology and theology professors, respectively, at Biola University, to argue that crises destroy one’s “assumptions” about the world, freeing up the mind to discard “unhelpful or untrue beliefs” and formulate a “better way of understanding the world and our place in it.” Drawing from research and personal experience—including Hall’s struggle with breast cancer—the authors explain how suffering brings people closer to God as they bump up against their own fallibility, reevaluate priorities, and build empathy toward others. They also detail how readers can grow during such periods by praying regularly and working to forgive oneself and others for past transgressions. The authors differentiate their advice from similar religious guides with their methodical approach and robust research, which includes interviews with nearly 100 Christian cancer survivors. It adds up to an insightful testament to the unexpected ways faith can be born from struggle. (Apr.)