Have You Read This Book?

I'm not sure how I missed it. It's been around for
ten years. "A Grace Disguised - how the soul grows through loss" by Gerald L. Sittser. He lost his mother, wife and four year old daughter on the same day. The book isn't so much about his losses, as it is about all loss. He handles this subject extremely well.

This comes from a paragraph towards the end of the book:

"The risk of further loss, therefore, poses a dilemma. The problem of choosing to love again is that the choice to love means living under the constant threat of further loss. But the problem of choosing not to love is that the choice to turn from love means imperiling the life of the soul, for the soul thrives in an environment of love. Soul-full people love; soul-less people do not. If people want their souls to grow through loss, whatever the loss is, they must eventually decide to love even more deeply than they did before. They must respond to the loss by embracing love with renewed energy and commitment."

and...

"The accident itself bewilders me as much today as it did three years ago. Much good has come from it, but all the good in the world will never make the accident itself good. It remains a horrible, tragic, and evil event to me. A million people could be helped as a result of the tragedy, but that would not be enough to expain and justify it. The badness of the event and the goodness of the results are related, to be sure, but they are not the same. The latter is a consequence of the former, but the latter does not make the former legitimate or right or good. I do not believe that I lost three members of my family in order that I might change for the better, raise three health children, or write a book. I still want them back, ad I always will, no matter what happens as a result of their deaths."

I'm glad I stopped rushing out to buy the books I was told were going to be great. Now, I simply peruse the bookshelves at the thrift store, and have found so many treasures there. This book is clearly one of those treasures.

And for only a dollar.