Saturday, February 26, 2011

Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life

by Carol Kent,
Zondervan, 2010

After reading Kent's earlier books, When I Lay My Isaac Down  and A New Kind of Normal, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the author's latest book on my (public) library's bookshelves.

Like the previous two books, this one deals with the subject of life after, and in the midst of, difficulty or tragedy. Kent knows her subject well. Her son, Jason, was incarcerated for life without the possibility of parole after killing his wife's ex-husband in 1999. An only child, raised in a good home with caring Christian parents, Jason was the last person anyone expected to commit murder and wind up a custodian of the prison system. As you can imagine, the outcome was devastating - for Jason, his parents, his new wife and her children, and for the fiancee and family of the murder victim.

While the new normal is not what anyone would have wished for Jason or anyone intimately connected with him through his crime, his mother points out that unexpected blessings have come out of his incarceration, not least of which is strengthened faith.

Peppered with stories of other people who have dealt with a variety of challenges and experienced "divine surprises in the tight spots of life," this is an excellent read for anyone, but especially for those who are going through struggles of their own.

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