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The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life's Hard
Don’t miss The Long The Kara Tippetts Story on Netflix now, featuring Ann Voskamp, Ellie Holcomb, and Joanna Gaines!
Kara Tippetts knows the ordinary days of mothering four kids, the joy of watching her children grow ... and the devestating reality of stage-four cancer. In The Hardest Peace , Kara doesn't offer answers for when living is hard, but she asks us to join her in moving away from fear and control and toward peace and grace. Most of all, she draws us back to the God who is with us, in the mundane and the suffering, and who shapes even our pain into beauty. Winner of the 2015 Christian Book Award® in the Inspiration category.
Kara Tippetts knows the ordinary days of mothering four kids, the joy of watching her children grow ... and the devestating reality of stage-four cancer. In The Hardest Peace , Kara doesn't offer answers for when living is hard, but she asks us to join her in moving away from fear and control and toward peace and grace. Most of all, she draws us back to the God who is with us, in the mundane and the suffering, and who shapes even our pain into beauty. Winner of the 2015 Christian Book Award® in the Inspiration category.
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2014
271 people are currently reading
2826 people want to read
About the author
Kara Tippetts
4 books36 followersThe late Kara Tippetts was the author of The Hardest Peace and blogged faithfully at mundanefaithfulness.com. Cancer was only a part of Kara’s story. Her real fight was to truly live while facing a crushing reality. Since her death in March 2015, her husband, Jason, is parenting their four children and leading the church they founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 393 reviews
September 15, 2014
I'm not sure I have the words to adequately describe the impact this book had on me. Kara Tippetts has a way with words, with life, with grace that is rare in our world. Though she's fighting stage four cancer, the book is far more about faith and life than it is cancer. I would recommend it to men, women, parents, singles, teenagers, grandparents. Anyone struggling with their own hard in life will benefit from this book. It changes perspectives, and it applies to every walk of life. Grace pours from the pages... and the faith. The way she cries out in faith is just life changing. Wherever you are in your faith, this book will meet you there. Read it. Don't hesitate. Yes, you'll go through a box of tissues. Yes, you'll stop mid-book and go apologize to one of your children for losing your temper (I did. True story.) But you'll also laugh. You'll start to look for the moments in life you've been missing. This book will change you. Be prepared. I am blessed to know this mama, and I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
May 12, 2016
I hesitate to write my review of this book because I don't mean to downplay the author's experiences in dealing with cancer and a terminal illness, however, I did not enjoy this book much. Please understand that my review is of this book as a book... I do not intend to be critical of her experiences in dealing with cancer.
I've read several books regarding people who are dealing with serious health diagnoses and terminal illnesses, and this book fell very short for me compared to those others I've read. First, I expected to read about her cancer story... how she received the diagnosis, the story of going through surgeries and treatments, etc. This book did not focus on her medical story, but just briefly mentioned that she has cancer and alluded to the fact that she has had many surgeries and chemo and radiation treatments, but none of those experiences were shared with the reader. The first half of the book is a memoir of the author's childhood and youth, giving lots of details about her abusive father, her rebellious teenage years, and her eventual conversion to God and acceptance of Jesus in her life.
This book was very religious and mostly focused on sharing the author's feelings about the importance of accepting Jesus and relying on His grace in your life. While I am a very religious person myself, the author is of a different denomination and her religious talk was very different from how I am accustomed to reading about religious principles, so that bothered me a little bit. I was especially disturbed that she and her husband's life work has been to establish a new church. I just don't believe that anyone can just decide to start their own new church.
And I was especially heartbroken as she talked about learning to accept the mis-interpreted teaching in Mark about how no one will be married in heaven. She and her husband had a really hard time embracing the fact that they will not be married after she passes. I was just heartbroken that these people don't have the fullness of the gospel to understand that families actually can be together forever, and I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of the true gospel and to have been married and sealed to my husband for eternity. I know that our marriage will not end with death. What a sad thing not to know, especially when faced with a terminal illness!
This book was not nearly as inspirational as other books I've read on similar topics. I didn't care much for the author's writing and was a little bugged at her use of adjectives as nouns so often (i.e. "hard"), as well as the occasional use of nouns as adjectives (i.e. "husband"). I think the author can feel very satisfied that she has left a book full of her testimony of Jesus and her strong belief in his power and grace, but this book didn't leave me feeling uplifted and inspired by her words, and I wish she would have shared more of her medical journey.
I've read several books regarding people who are dealing with serious health diagnoses and terminal illnesses, and this book fell very short for me compared to those others I've read. First, I expected to read about her cancer story... how she received the diagnosis, the story of going through surgeries and treatments, etc. This book did not focus on her medical story, but just briefly mentioned that she has cancer and alluded to the fact that she has had many surgeries and chemo and radiation treatments, but none of those experiences were shared with the reader. The first half of the book is a memoir of the author's childhood and youth, giving lots of details about her abusive father, her rebellious teenage years, and her eventual conversion to God and acceptance of Jesus in her life.
This book was very religious and mostly focused on sharing the author's feelings about the importance of accepting Jesus and relying on His grace in your life. While I am a very religious person myself, the author is of a different denomination and her religious talk was very different from how I am accustomed to reading about religious principles, so that bothered me a little bit. I was especially disturbed that she and her husband's life work has been to establish a new church. I just don't believe that anyone can just decide to start their own new church.
And I was especially heartbroken as she talked about learning to accept the mis-interpreted teaching in Mark about how no one will be married in heaven. She and her husband had a really hard time embracing the fact that they will not be married after she passes. I was just heartbroken that these people don't have the fullness of the gospel to understand that families actually can be together forever, and I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of the true gospel and to have been married and sealed to my husband for eternity. I know that our marriage will not end with death. What a sad thing not to know, especially when faced with a terminal illness!
This book was not nearly as inspirational as other books I've read on similar topics. I didn't care much for the author's writing and was a little bugged at her use of adjectives as nouns so often (i.e. "hard"), as well as the occasional use of nouns as adjectives (i.e. "husband"). I think the author can feel very satisfied that she has left a book full of her testimony of Jesus and her strong belief in his power and grace, but this book didn't leave me feeling uplifted and inspired by her words, and I wish she would have shared more of her medical journey.
January 5, 2015
Stark, real, vivid, painful and heart-breaking. Kara has a way of interweaving poetic lyricism with the harshest of pain and suffering. Never once depending on cliches or sugar-coating her experience, her words are a palette of infinite, wretched grace. This was a hard book to read: one that forces contemplation on how one might deal with this finite weakness and all too true illness. Yet, Kara has a warm, welcoming tone and a sense of humour to counter the din of despair. This is not so much a linear tale as one told in stitches and patches, fragments of story and truth and life lessons cut all too short before transforming into greater seeds of ethereal wisdom. I think all readers who have experienced suffering or disappointment on any level will appreciate the wise and open way in which Kara weaves her indelible tapestry of pain and strife. Putting me in mind of Philip Yancey's Where is God When it Hurts, Kara Tippetts has written a profound treatise on suffering. She sheds the greedy optimism which overtook "self help Christianity" a la Bruce Wilkerson and trades it for the defining and the real. Soundly grounded in theology and told with staggering faith, this book is one I shall not soon forget.
September 21, 2014
It is through the unbearable pain of stage IV cancer that Kara learned the important lessons of life. God's grace always shows up. Love is kind. Community matters. The little moments should be embraced. This is not just a book for those scarred by the reality of cancer. No one escapes this life without some form of struggle. This is for you. Kara learned how to truly live, as she has faced limited days. She shares how to start living that way NOW. There are so many important truths in this beautiful book that I will be reading it more than once. I would recommend this book for everyone that has breath in them.
August 5, 2015
Beautiful, thoughtful, heartbreaking, inspiring. I cannot compare my health struggles with Kara's cancer battle. But my struggles are real for me, for my family. They are challenging, frustrating, disheartening. Sometimes, I feel like my life is passing me by and I'm barely a part of it. It's like I'm waiting, just waiting to get better so I can get back to life - get back to doing. And yet I look at Kara and how sick she was and how she still chose to live fully. And I am learning that there is value in the being. When I am unable, I am still loved. When I am unable, Christ is more than able. I am not what I do, and I am not less when I can't do the things I am "supposed to" do. That is my hard lesson God has been, is, shaping in my heart. This heart that has felt the need to be good enough, the need to be right, the need to please, since childhood. And oh how I fight it, but he is softening me. And yes, I know he will win. Kara encourages me to look to the moments for grace and goodness. She is another voice for me, a growing number, reminding me that God is good and that my life is the good story, and that I need to fight to see the beauty and the grace - I need to be fully present. My illness is shaping me and remaking me. It is hard, but it doesn't mean it isn't ultimately good. I struggle to believe that, yet I am confident it is true.
"What if our journey was intimately planned to be hard, and that story is the good story? What if the glow of prosperity isn't a glow at all but a unique stink? What if suffering isn't to be avoided but received and embraced?" (P 66)
"What if our journey was intimately planned to be hard, and that story is the good story? What if the glow of prosperity isn't a glow at all but a unique stink? What if suffering isn't to be avoided but received and embraced?" (P 66)
March 17, 2015
I have to be honest, at first, I was scared of Kara's story, You see, she is a thirty-something mama with a loving husband and four great kids, in ministry, and she's dying young (unless a supernatural miracle happens).
I don't want that story. In fact, I went and got some lumps and bumps checked after I finished this book. Thankfully, I am just fine, but with that relief came guilt that Kara is not getting the same kind of report from her doctors.
But, here's the thing, as I held The Hardest Peace in my hands, savoring the words and encountering true hope amidst the horrific, I felt like an honored student, listening well and learning deep that God can sustain and provide grace for those moments we never saw coming.
This book is much more than the Tippetts cancer journey, it is a guide to living kind, living real, and trusting God even when you don't understand the "why". It is a book about the beauty and the hard and being faithful to what He has set before you as circumstances threaten to undo you.
Currently, Kara is home, in a hospital bed. She is fading. Would you take a moment and pray for this sweet family? What strikes me the most through their story is that they tell it but then they focus on you, continually drawing you closer to Christ and asking questions that cause you to grow. What a costly gift.
I don't want that story. In fact, I went and got some lumps and bumps checked after I finished this book. Thankfully, I am just fine, but with that relief came guilt that Kara is not getting the same kind of report from her doctors.
But, here's the thing, as I held The Hardest Peace in my hands, savoring the words and encountering true hope amidst the horrific, I felt like an honored student, listening well and learning deep that God can sustain and provide grace for those moments we never saw coming.
This book is much more than the Tippetts cancer journey, it is a guide to living kind, living real, and trusting God even when you don't understand the "why". It is a book about the beauty and the hard and being faithful to what He has set before you as circumstances threaten to undo you.
Currently, Kara is home, in a hospital bed. She is fading. Would you take a moment and pray for this sweet family? What strikes me the most through their story is that they tell it but then they focus on you, continually drawing you closer to Christ and asking questions that cause you to grow. What a costly gift.
March 23, 2015
What would it be like to have lost all that you know because of illness, loss of a job, loss of a spouse and be able to say “All I have is but you Lord”? Does all our striving put in us in the presence of Jesus with our good reputations, our drive for success, our need to be accepted? With all that we do, do we manufacture our faith? I knew that when I read the first few pages of this special testimony, I knew that my heart would be captured for something greater.
You may relate to Kara as she shares her life. How children learn to seek the approval of their parents. How an angry father whose very words cut to the soul of his children. How a grandmother that had the unique gift of a child being able to claim that they are the favorite.
To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace in the words of Brennan Manning, Kara was introduced to Jesus and how his grace changed everything.
I love her line in meeting her husband- Jesus was the life change and Jason was the game changer. His love for others was a deep attraction. He had the gift of making others feel known. I think we all desire that. To be known. Her husband set the standard for her in loving Jesus. In their marriage they learned the art of fighting fair and fighting with kindness. Marriage is the gospel. Where sanctification is the life of the marriage along with repentance, without it, a marriage will die. Repentance gives life to relationships. It is in marriage we can create a golden calf idol in how marriage is to fix us. What other golden calf idol are we making to fix us and maybe others? The Cross is our only fix.
How are we testing our boundaries of the depth of love in our relationships?
In Kara’s story, she had a plot change in her life and an understanding that we are not the authors of our lives, but the characters who respond to the author. While the cancer was taking the life out of Kara, their new community and church were giving life by loving her and her family well. You read something like this and you realize that only a few experience this kind of love. In your suffering, you can respond by giving your children the wisdom that you are learning in your suffering. With Kara it was the beauty of the heart and seeing your own worth, your own beauty of who God created you. Our pain can lead to beauty but it is rarely pretty. It can bring the ugliness out of us that we have in our dream world when we are faced in the reality of our own weakness. In learning to live a life courageously broken you realize that brokenness is not to be feared but humbly received. To learn the joy of sharing life with the imperfect is where we are transparent.
The question that we need to ask ourselves in all the ugliness in the world and in our own hurts pain, suffering, Is God good? In a bad marriage, is God Good? In an untimely death of a loved one, is God Good? In the news of bad health, is God Good? In financial ruin, is God Good? In the face of our brokenness, is God Good?
Kara writes her story that we would see the bigger picture in our own story. You can follow her blog
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/ho...
Behold I am making all things new. Revelation 21:5 God is good indeed. Know him! Behold Him.
Update 3/22/2015 went home to the Lord
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/ho...
My huge thanks to the publisher David C Cook and NetGalley for a ebook to read and review.
You may relate to Kara as she shares her life. How children learn to seek the approval of their parents. How an angry father whose very words cut to the soul of his children. How a grandmother that had the unique gift of a child being able to claim that they are the favorite.
To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace in the words of Brennan Manning, Kara was introduced to Jesus and how his grace changed everything.
I love her line in meeting her husband- Jesus was the life change and Jason was the game changer. His love for others was a deep attraction. He had the gift of making others feel known. I think we all desire that. To be known. Her husband set the standard for her in loving Jesus. In their marriage they learned the art of fighting fair and fighting with kindness. Marriage is the gospel. Where sanctification is the life of the marriage along with repentance, without it, a marriage will die. Repentance gives life to relationships. It is in marriage we can create a golden calf idol in how marriage is to fix us. What other golden calf idol are we making to fix us and maybe others? The Cross is our only fix.
How are we testing our boundaries of the depth of love in our relationships?
In Kara’s story, she had a plot change in her life and an understanding that we are not the authors of our lives, but the characters who respond to the author. While the cancer was taking the life out of Kara, their new community and church were giving life by loving her and her family well. You read something like this and you realize that only a few experience this kind of love. In your suffering, you can respond by giving your children the wisdom that you are learning in your suffering. With Kara it was the beauty of the heart and seeing your own worth, your own beauty of who God created you. Our pain can lead to beauty but it is rarely pretty. It can bring the ugliness out of us that we have in our dream world when we are faced in the reality of our own weakness. In learning to live a life courageously broken you realize that brokenness is not to be feared but humbly received. To learn the joy of sharing life with the imperfect is where we are transparent.
The question that we need to ask ourselves in all the ugliness in the world and in our own hurts pain, suffering, Is God good? In a bad marriage, is God Good? In an untimely death of a loved one, is God Good? In the news of bad health, is God Good? In financial ruin, is God Good? In the face of our brokenness, is God Good?
Kara writes her story that we would see the bigger picture in our own story. You can follow her blog
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/ho...
Behold I am making all things new. Revelation 21:5 God is good indeed. Know him! Behold Him.
Update 3/22/2015 went home to the Lord
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/ho...
My huge thanks to the publisher David C Cook and NetGalley for a ebook to read and review.
October 1, 2014
An extraordinary book of hope! How do we live, really live when the hard of life hits? How do we help our littles when the hard in life just simply doesn't make sense? Kara Tippetts graciously, beautifully, and lovingly beckons us, through her words and in sharing her life's journey, to LIVE.... while leaning hard into Jesus, the one who's strength is made perfect when we are weak. She knows weak and hard, and sick and tired, and Jesus showing up in strength and grace. She shares what it means to struggle, to relinquish the way we 'thought' it would be, and to savor the sweet and precious moments with our loves, to lean into the hard that life brings, to love BIG, to parent with kindness, to runaway with our loves, to giggle and laugh, to treasure the warm snuggle, to SEE and pay attention to the one(s) who join us in our journey.
The Hardest Peace is a warm and honest reflection of the reality of living with the 'hard,' AND the kind reminder of this simple word, STILL (a five letter fist of hope as Kara calls it)...STILL there is laughter and joy and celebrations and warm snuggles and hot coffee and beautiful sunsets. Kara Tippetts kindly and convincingly brings us face to face with the reality of hard stories...but she does not leave us there. The Hardest Peace is filled with STILL and Kara's words are drenched in hope and goodness and the knowledge that we are loved beyond measure by the God of hope, in whose presence we find peace and life everlasting. Her hard story is hard, yet her words and heart and example in the midst of hard are LIFE GIVING! Beautiful, lovely, gracious, full of encouragement and hope! (word to the wise...make sure you have a chunk of time when you decide to turn to that first page. You'll have a hard time putting it down.)
Thank you, Kara Tippetts, thank you!
The Hardest Peace is a warm and honest reflection of the reality of living with the 'hard,' AND the kind reminder of this simple word, STILL (a five letter fist of hope as Kara calls it)...STILL there is laughter and joy and celebrations and warm snuggles and hot coffee and beautiful sunsets. Kara Tippetts kindly and convincingly brings us face to face with the reality of hard stories...but she does not leave us there. The Hardest Peace is filled with STILL and Kara's words are drenched in hope and goodness and the knowledge that we are loved beyond measure by the God of hope, in whose presence we find peace and life everlasting. Her hard story is hard, yet her words and heart and example in the midst of hard are LIFE GIVING! Beautiful, lovely, gracious, full of encouragement and hope! (word to the wise...make sure you have a chunk of time when you decide to turn to that first page. You'll have a hard time putting it down.)
Thank you, Kara Tippetts, thank you!
June 13, 2015
I heard about this young women during a controversial time when another young woman in a similar situation was fighting for the right to take her own life before cancer could take it for her and Ms. Tippetts publicly encouraged her not to do so, for a number of reasons. I did not realize Ms. Tippetts had written a book about her experiences until I heard a notice of her death, and her book was mentioned. The book was written before this other controversy had started, and I was curious about how Ms. Tippetts chose to share her story and her thoughts on life with cancer while trying to raise small children and be somewhat "normal."
For those who do not have a faith in Christ the book would certainly come across a bit preachy, but mostly it is a heartfelt expression of a mother and wife who knows she's dying and has to face the realities of trying to hold onto every moment with her children and husband, while also preparing them for life without her. It's a book about trust in the unknown, grace in the pain, and giving all of oneself for those you most love while going through your most difficult hours. It's a story of encouragement, pain, suffering, and blissful joy, capturing the seemingly most mundane moments. The wishes she has for her children are absolutely precious and her desire for the well-being of her husband is priceless. If nothing else, it gives me the barest insight into the world of friends and family facing the dreaded "C" word and a heart for those who still want to be loved and treated as people, in the midst of their suffering. May God grant me the grace to really "see" others where they really are, and the courage to do what I can, when I can, in any moment that provides opportunity. And never take the small things for granted.
3.5/5
For those who do not have a faith in Christ the book would certainly come across a bit preachy, but mostly it is a heartfelt expression of a mother and wife who knows she's dying and has to face the realities of trying to hold onto every moment with her children and husband, while also preparing them for life without her. It's a book about trust in the unknown, grace in the pain, and giving all of oneself for those you most love while going through your most difficult hours. It's a story of encouragement, pain, suffering, and blissful joy, capturing the seemingly most mundane moments. The wishes she has for her children are absolutely precious and her desire for the well-being of her husband is priceless. If nothing else, it gives me the barest insight into the world of friends and family facing the dreaded "C" word and a heart for those who still want to be loved and treated as people, in the midst of their suffering. May God grant me the grace to really "see" others where they really are, and the courage to do what I can, when I can, in any moment that provides opportunity. And never take the small things for granted.
3.5/5
January 8, 2017
So this was a five-star read. Kara captured the paradox of life's ugly pain wrapped in the velvet of God's sweet grace. And she wrote in the down-to-earth kind of way we think.
Kara endured what many also endure growing up - the anger of a dad and learning to just look good in public. As a teen, she found security in substance abuse and other things. Yet she came to Christ at a Christmas summer camp! And her story of growing in faith is endearing. She describes her journey in God's grace: finding His grace to forgive her father's anger and to thrive through the path of cancer.
Just a few words of Kara's wisdom she shared:
"Certainly, I’m not immune to wanting to be well liked, but the heart of a shared meal is to know a heart, not be the winner of dinner. My cooking now is nutritious, simple, hearty, and simple to clean up or leave until the morning. The heart of our meals is to know the hearts around our table." p121
"Sometimes the hardest peace to find is the peace in saying good-bye and leaving the work of justice and reconciliation to Jesus." p56
"My dear friend put it well when she said, “We all carry around within ourselves a cage of rats.” The rats are our unkindness, our sin struggles, tensions our personalities bring, and our hardness of heart. We know these rats well. We love some of them, and we hate some of them, but ultimately we work very hard at hiding them from those who know us. We are quietly testing the boundaries of the depth of love in our relationships. For me, it felt like marriage became this moment when I could release the rats—" p50
Kara endured what many also endure growing up - the anger of a dad and learning to just look good in public. As a teen, she found security in substance abuse and other things. Yet she came to Christ at a Christmas summer camp! And her story of growing in faith is endearing. She describes her journey in God's grace: finding His grace to forgive her father's anger and to thrive through the path of cancer.
Just a few words of Kara's wisdom she shared:
"Certainly, I’m not immune to wanting to be well liked, but the heart of a shared meal is to know a heart, not be the winner of dinner. My cooking now is nutritious, simple, hearty, and simple to clean up or leave until the morning. The heart of our meals is to know the hearts around our table." p121
"Sometimes the hardest peace to find is the peace in saying good-bye and leaving the work of justice and reconciliation to Jesus." p56
"My dear friend put it well when she said, “We all carry around within ourselves a cage of rats.” The rats are our unkindness, our sin struggles, tensions our personalities bring, and our hardness of heart. We know these rats well. We love some of them, and we hate some of them, but ultimately we work very hard at hiding them from those who know us. We are quietly testing the boundaries of the depth of love in our relationships. For me, it felt like marriage became this moment when I could release the rats—" p50
September 17, 2014
I was so blessed to be able to get this book at our Women's Conference where Kara spoke. I read this book in one sitting. It is a beautiful story of a life changed. Kara charges readers to seek Grace both in the mundane of life with our families and in the tragedies of cancer and chaos. She reminds of that "hard" in our lives is not the absence of God's good. Hard is just hard. But Jesus meets us there with Grace. Always Grace.
"Love is Kind." It will change your life.
"Love is Kind." It will change your life.
September 18, 2014
Such an honor to have had the privelege to read this book. You will need a box of tissues for sure! It is quite difficult to put into words just what this beautiful story has done to change my heart. I am reminded everyday of kindness and how I speak to those I love. I look at every day as a gift. Thank you Kara for allowing God to use you in this way. Your story of hard has truly been a huge life changing blessing to me.
May 7, 2016
This book is about Kara life, battler, and beauty of battling cancer. This is one of the best books I have ever read about someone battling cancer. She gives much insight on a Christian's life living in a "hard" place. As you read the quotes below, please know Kara is now in Heaven worshipping her Savior! Here is a tribute to her life on YouTube.
I trust the quotes below (many from authors she read) will be a blessing to you:
It is a honed art, as well as a spiritual discipline, to be able to step back for the details and see how her own stories are woven into a much bigger one…God’s story. ~Joni Eareckson Tada
Kara and I both recognize the vulnerability and transparency are so necessary and communicating a powerful story. But we also know that our testimonies won’t really reach ---or even change--- the life of the reader. Only the Word of God can do that. Which is why I so appreciate The Hardest Peace. It is filled with snippets of songs and slices of encouraging scriptures that in express the story of God and his purpose in our pain. Kara has a way of reminding us that God’s reasons are perfect and that our Savior, intimately acquainted with grief and suffering, is constantly pleading our case before heaven’s throne. What could be more comforting than that? ~Joni Eareckson Tada
My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and maybe many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father. ~Lisa May Alcott, Little Women
If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God’s Word in front of me. ~Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand
This is indeed the deepest comfort – – to be accepted by God, totally forgiven, and then by grace to forgive the deepest wounds and hurts. ~Rosa Marie Miller, From Fear To Freedom
The work of restoration cannot begin until our problem is fully faced. ~Dan Allender
We are not the author of our story. We are the characters.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and trouble is to school and intelligence and make it a soul? ~John Keats
When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for this world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks. ~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
If the honesty with which I tell my story where the limitation of His strength, well, I would be screwed. But imagine if He were intimately involved in my story, which He is. Imagine if He showed Himself in my hard, which He did, and what if the hard of my story is the beautiful redemption of my today? Could suffering then take on a different hue? Could the coloring of the hard not be so dark, so hateful and gloomy? The well-meaning emails that admonish the way I speak about my story caused me to wonder at the depth of grace that can be understood without the presence of God in the midst of our suffering. If our hard is the absence of a good God, and how can anyone walk in faith?
Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. ~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts Devotional
Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain, and hope, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very hard, but suffering is not the absence of God or good. In our culture the call often seems to be winning, being the best, most beautiful, most successful, but what if that isn’t the good story? How has suffering made your story richer? How has it shaped your story?
Il faut souffrir pour etre belle. You must suffer in order to be beautiful.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I said Gandalf, “and so do all who lived to see such times. But this is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Jason recently said in a sermon, “We want suffering to be like pregnancy – – we have a season, and it’s over, and there is a tidy moral to the story.” I've come to sense that isn't what faith is at all. What if there is never an end? What if the story never improves and the test continue to break our hearts? Is God still good? How does our story of love change when we look head-on at my absence from this life? How do you live realistically when you feel like your moments are fading, fleeting, too momentary? How do you fight for normal in the midst of the crushing daily news of more hard? How do you see cope without forgetting reality? How do we wrap our children and our love story and continue to live intentionally getting salty tears in the baked ziti? How do we share the story being written for us with our children while we try to protect their childhood? Bald can lead to such beauty. But it is never, ever pretty.
Marriage is an illustration, a living illustration of our marriage to Jesus. Marriage is a reminder, a shadow, a picture of what is to come. When a marriage is based on Jesus, based on love, on grace, on the goodness of God in relationship, all who come in contact with that marriage will go away blessed, richer, nourished. Marriage is to be the place of freedom to deeply know God’s goodness, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. It is to point us to the ultimate Goodness, Mercy, Forgiveness, and Grace that is to come. Is the ultimate “now and not yet” in living.
Yet, while we are comforted by knowing this, let us not rest contented with a weak faith, but ask, like the Apostles, to have it increased. However feeble our face may be, If it be real faith in Christ, we shall reach heaven at last, but shall not honor our Master much on our pilgrimage, neither shall we abound in joy and peace. If, then, you would live to Christ’s glory, and be happy in His service, seek to be filled with the Spirit of adoption more and more completely, tell perfect love cast out fear. ~Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning
But because I believe God’s plans for me are better than what I could plan for myself, rather than run away from the path he has set before me, I want to run toward it. I don’t want to try to change God’s mind – – his thoughts are perfect. I want to think his thoughts. I don’t want to change God’s timing – – his timing is perfect. I want the grace to except his timing I don’t want to change God’s plan – – his plan is perfect. I want to embrace his plan and see how he is glorified through it. I want to submit. ~Nancy Guthrie, Holding onto Hope
Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace. ~Flannery O’Connor, A Prayer Journal
There is no occasion when meals should become totally unimportant. Meals can be very small indeed, very inexpensive, short time staking in the midst of a big push of work, but they should be always more than just food. ~Edith Schaeffer, Hidden Art
Then the Shepherd smiled more comfortably than ever before, laid both hands on her head and said, “Be strong, yea, be strong and fear not.” Then He continued, “Much- Afraid, don’t ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. Believe Me, when you get to the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined, just as was the case when you were actually ascending the precipice. I must warn you that I see your enemies lurking among the trees ahead, and if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the scene of your imagination, you will walk with fear and trembling and agony, where no fear is.” ~Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places
Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness – – this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all. This is the kind of faith that can be developed and displayed in the midst of difficult circumstances. This is the kind of faith that cannot be shaken because it is a result of having been shaken. ~Nancy Guthrie, Holding onto Hope
For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a world where dreams and adventures shrink to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand. ~Wayne Triplett, Heaven Is Waiting
Interestingly enough, the most – asked question in the Bible – – from Genesis to Revelation – – is “How long, O Lord, how long?” And the most repeated command from God is “Do not fear” or “Do not be afraid.” The people of God consistently cry out for relief, and the God of love bids us trust him. ~Scotty Smith, Objects of His Affection
In Heaven everyone and everything is lovable, but as the Lord Jesus said, “if you love them which love you, what reward have ye?” (Matthew 5:46). In Heaven everyone loves everyone else, and in hell no one loves anyone. But on earth we are in a perfect environment for learning how to love as God loves: to abandon ourselves to loving apparently unlovely people who reminded us that in many ways we are still very unlovely ourselves. ~Hannah Hernard, Hinds Feet on High Places
The sweetest thing in all my life has been loving – – to reach the Mountain, to find the place were all the beauty came from… my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. ~C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
God’s purposes in present grief may not be fully known in a week, in a year, or even in this lifetime. Indeed, some of God’s purposes will not even be known when believers die and go to be with the Lord. Some will only be discovered at the day of final judgment when the Lord reveals the secrets of all hearts and commends with special honor those who trusted him in hardship even though they could not see the reason for it: they trusted him simply because he was their God and they knew him to be worthy of trust. It is in times when the reason for hardship cannot be seen that trust in God alone seems to be most pure and precious in His sight. Such faith He will not forget, but will store up as a jewel of great value and beauty to be displayed and delighted in on the day of judgment. ~Wayne Grudem, The First Epistle of Peter
Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – – we can love completely without complete understanding. ~Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Over Stories
I recommend to anyone who is suffering through hardships or knows someone that is.
Here is link to her blog, she wrote it as she was going through the struggle and now that she is in Heaven her family members continue a beautiful tribute to her by writing in her blog!
I trust the quotes below (many from authors she read) will be a blessing to you:
It is a honed art, as well as a spiritual discipline, to be able to step back for the details and see how her own stories are woven into a much bigger one…God’s story. ~Joni Eareckson Tada
Kara and I both recognize the vulnerability and transparency are so necessary and communicating a powerful story. But we also know that our testimonies won’t really reach ---or even change--- the life of the reader. Only the Word of God can do that. Which is why I so appreciate The Hardest Peace. It is filled with snippets of songs and slices of encouraging scriptures that in express the story of God and his purpose in our pain. Kara has a way of reminding us that God’s reasons are perfect and that our Savior, intimately acquainted with grief and suffering, is constantly pleading our case before heaven’s throne. What could be more comforting than that? ~Joni Eareckson Tada
My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and maybe many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father. ~Lisa May Alcott, Little Women
If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God’s Word in front of me. ~Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand
This is indeed the deepest comfort – – to be accepted by God, totally forgiven, and then by grace to forgive the deepest wounds and hurts. ~Rosa Marie Miller, From Fear To Freedom
The work of restoration cannot begin until our problem is fully faced. ~Dan Allender
We are not the author of our story. We are the characters.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and trouble is to school and intelligence and make it a soul? ~John Keats
When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for this world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks. ~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
If the honesty with which I tell my story where the limitation of His strength, well, I would be screwed. But imagine if He were intimately involved in my story, which He is. Imagine if He showed Himself in my hard, which He did, and what if the hard of my story is the beautiful redemption of my today? Could suffering then take on a different hue? Could the coloring of the hard not be so dark, so hateful and gloomy? The well-meaning emails that admonish the way I speak about my story caused me to wonder at the depth of grace that can be understood without the presence of God in the midst of our suffering. If our hard is the absence of a good God, and how can anyone walk in faith?
Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. ~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts Devotional
Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain, and hope, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very hard, but suffering is not the absence of God or good. In our culture the call often seems to be winning, being the best, most beautiful, most successful, but what if that isn’t the good story? How has suffering made your story richer? How has it shaped your story?
Il faut souffrir pour etre belle. You must suffer in order to be beautiful.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I said Gandalf, “and so do all who lived to see such times. But this is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Jason recently said in a sermon, “We want suffering to be like pregnancy – – we have a season, and it’s over, and there is a tidy moral to the story.” I've come to sense that isn't what faith is at all. What if there is never an end? What if the story never improves and the test continue to break our hearts? Is God still good? How does our story of love change when we look head-on at my absence from this life? How do you live realistically when you feel like your moments are fading, fleeting, too momentary? How do you fight for normal in the midst of the crushing daily news of more hard? How do you see cope without forgetting reality? How do we wrap our children and our love story and continue to live intentionally getting salty tears in the baked ziti? How do we share the story being written for us with our children while we try to protect their childhood? Bald can lead to such beauty. But it is never, ever pretty.
Marriage is an illustration, a living illustration of our marriage to Jesus. Marriage is a reminder, a shadow, a picture of what is to come. When a marriage is based on Jesus, based on love, on grace, on the goodness of God in relationship, all who come in contact with that marriage will go away blessed, richer, nourished. Marriage is to be the place of freedom to deeply know God’s goodness, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. It is to point us to the ultimate Goodness, Mercy, Forgiveness, and Grace that is to come. Is the ultimate “now and not yet” in living.
Yet, while we are comforted by knowing this, let us not rest contented with a weak faith, but ask, like the Apostles, to have it increased. However feeble our face may be, If it be real faith in Christ, we shall reach heaven at last, but shall not honor our Master much on our pilgrimage, neither shall we abound in joy and peace. If, then, you would live to Christ’s glory, and be happy in His service, seek to be filled with the Spirit of adoption more and more completely, tell perfect love cast out fear. ~Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning
But because I believe God’s plans for me are better than what I could plan for myself, rather than run away from the path he has set before me, I want to run toward it. I don’t want to try to change God’s mind – – his thoughts are perfect. I want to think his thoughts. I don’t want to change God’s timing – – his timing is perfect. I want the grace to except his timing I don’t want to change God’s plan – – his plan is perfect. I want to embrace his plan and see how he is glorified through it. I want to submit. ~Nancy Guthrie, Holding onto Hope
Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace. ~Flannery O’Connor, A Prayer Journal
There is no occasion when meals should become totally unimportant. Meals can be very small indeed, very inexpensive, short time staking in the midst of a big push of work, but they should be always more than just food. ~Edith Schaeffer, Hidden Art
Then the Shepherd smiled more comfortably than ever before, laid both hands on her head and said, “Be strong, yea, be strong and fear not.” Then He continued, “Much- Afraid, don’t ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. Believe Me, when you get to the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined, just as was the case when you were actually ascending the precipice. I must warn you that I see your enemies lurking among the trees ahead, and if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the scene of your imagination, you will walk with fear and trembling and agony, where no fear is.” ~Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places
Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness – – this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all. This is the kind of faith that can be developed and displayed in the midst of difficult circumstances. This is the kind of faith that cannot be shaken because it is a result of having been shaken. ~Nancy Guthrie, Holding onto Hope
For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a world where dreams and adventures shrink to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand. ~Wayne Triplett, Heaven Is Waiting
Interestingly enough, the most – asked question in the Bible – – from Genesis to Revelation – – is “How long, O Lord, how long?” And the most repeated command from God is “Do not fear” or “Do not be afraid.” The people of God consistently cry out for relief, and the God of love bids us trust him. ~Scotty Smith, Objects of His Affection
In Heaven everyone and everything is lovable, but as the Lord Jesus said, “if you love them which love you, what reward have ye?” (Matthew 5:46). In Heaven everyone loves everyone else, and in hell no one loves anyone. But on earth we are in a perfect environment for learning how to love as God loves: to abandon ourselves to loving apparently unlovely people who reminded us that in many ways we are still very unlovely ourselves. ~Hannah Hernard, Hinds Feet on High Places
The sweetest thing in all my life has been loving – – to reach the Mountain, to find the place were all the beauty came from… my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. ~C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
God’s purposes in present grief may not be fully known in a week, in a year, or even in this lifetime. Indeed, some of God’s purposes will not even be known when believers die and go to be with the Lord. Some will only be discovered at the day of final judgment when the Lord reveals the secrets of all hearts and commends with special honor those who trusted him in hardship even though they could not see the reason for it: they trusted him simply because he was their God and they knew him to be worthy of trust. It is in times when the reason for hardship cannot be seen that trust in God alone seems to be most pure and precious in His sight. Such faith He will not forget, but will store up as a jewel of great value and beauty to be displayed and delighted in on the day of judgment. ~Wayne Grudem, The First Epistle of Peter
Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – – we can love completely without complete understanding. ~Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Over Stories
I recommend to anyone who is suffering through hardships or knows someone that is.
Here is link to her blog, she wrote it as she was going through the struggle and now that she is in Heaven her family members continue a beautiful tribute to her by writing in her blog!
Read
July 5, 2022Cancer and the faithfulness of God. I had never heard of this book but it opened my eyes to how I can seek God in the hard places and accept His grace.
February 27, 2018
Beautiful words and wisdom from someone walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I didn’t personally connect with Kara’s writing style in the second half of the book, and I winced to read the things she chose to write about her (still living) parents.
August 26, 2015
My sister-in-law (who's not much of a reader) read this one and wouldn't stop talking about it, so I had to give it a chance. The author of the book died from breast cancer at a young age leaving behind her husband and four young children. She treated her disease as a lesson, as "life's hard", and she appears to have learned her lessons well.
One of the primary lessons she learned was very convicting to me as well. We would all prefer that our lives be easy, that our borders would be enlarged and we be kept from harm and pain, but Kara came to "grieve (her) own thirst for comfort, ease, plenty without pain" (64). We tend to grow the most when life is hard, yet we still want our lives to be easy. "What if our journey was intimately planned to be hard, and that story is the good story? What if the glow of prosperity isn't a glow at all but a unique stink? What if suffering isn't to be avoided but received and embraced?" (66) I also thought it was a good point that "We want suffering to be like pregnancy--we have a season, and it's over, and there is a tidy moral to the story" (97). Sometimes suffering is like that, and we can look back when it's over and be thankful for the lessons we learned. But sometimes it just isn't that tidy. Yet God's grace is sufficient.
Two other lessons she learned were also particularly good in my mind. She learned humility as she went from being a doer, a giver, a go-to girl, a mentor, to being the one in need. A hard lesson indeed. Then she learned to appreciate and enjoy the moments, to be thankful for each moment, each mundane moment, she had with her family. "Our family had lived as immortal beings, thinking these precious moments would never cease. We lived not knowing their significant importance" (116). Oh, how guilty I am of this! Sometimes I even wish the moments away, counting the hours until Alan gets home from work or until that planned outing, that break, with a girlfriend.
I enjoyed her writing style, and my favorite part was her liberal sprinkling of quotes throughout her story. Since I borrowed the book, I just have to record a few of my favorite quotes.
"To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace. Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners. There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are." --Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
"He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet." --Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning
"My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father." --Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
"Disclose rather than be exposed. We will be exposed anyway when we see Jesus face-to-face. We might as well do it now." --Ed Welch, "Disclose or be Exposed", Christianity.com
"Then the Shepherd smiled more comfortingly than ever before, laid both hands on her head and said, "Be strong, yea, be strong and fear not." Then He continued, "Much-Afraid, don't ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. Believe Me, when you get in the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined, just as was the case when you were actually ascending the precipice. I must warn you that I see your enemies lurking among the trees ahead, and if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the screen of your imagination, you will walk with fear and trembling and agony, where no fear is." --Hanna Hurnard, Hinds' Feet on High Places
One of the primary lessons she learned was very convicting to me as well. We would all prefer that our lives be easy, that our borders would be enlarged and we be kept from harm and pain, but Kara came to "grieve (her) own thirst for comfort, ease, plenty without pain" (64). We tend to grow the most when life is hard, yet we still want our lives to be easy. "What if our journey was intimately planned to be hard, and that story is the good story? What if the glow of prosperity isn't a glow at all but a unique stink? What if suffering isn't to be avoided but received and embraced?" (66) I also thought it was a good point that "We want suffering to be like pregnancy--we have a season, and it's over, and there is a tidy moral to the story" (97). Sometimes suffering is like that, and we can look back when it's over and be thankful for the lessons we learned. But sometimes it just isn't that tidy. Yet God's grace is sufficient.
Two other lessons she learned were also particularly good in my mind. She learned humility as she went from being a doer, a giver, a go-to girl, a mentor, to being the one in need. A hard lesson indeed. Then she learned to appreciate and enjoy the moments, to be thankful for each moment, each mundane moment, she had with her family. "Our family had lived as immortal beings, thinking these precious moments would never cease. We lived not knowing their significant importance" (116). Oh, how guilty I am of this! Sometimes I even wish the moments away, counting the hours until Alan gets home from work or until that planned outing, that break, with a girlfriend.
I enjoyed her writing style, and my favorite part was her liberal sprinkling of quotes throughout her story. Since I borrowed the book, I just have to record a few of my favorite quotes.
"To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace. Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners. There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are." --Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
"He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet." --Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning
"My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father." --Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
"Disclose rather than be exposed. We will be exposed anyway when we see Jesus face-to-face. We might as well do it now." --Ed Welch, "Disclose or be Exposed", Christianity.com
"Then the Shepherd smiled more comfortingly than ever before, laid both hands on her head and said, "Be strong, yea, be strong and fear not." Then He continued, "Much-Afraid, don't ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. Believe Me, when you get in the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined, just as was the case when you were actually ascending the precipice. I must warn you that I see your enemies lurking among the trees ahead, and if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the screen of your imagination, you will walk with fear and trembling and agony, where no fear is." --Hanna Hurnard, Hinds' Feet on High Places
January 1, 2016
Read this in one sitting...and cried several times as I was reading it. It's not the greatest literary or theological work ever, but it is an honest account of a real woman's intense suffering and Jesus' unfathomable grace. And the truths that Kara shares aren't just for huge trials, because we can be tempted to doubt Jesus' love even in the smallest difficulties. I need these truths in my everyday experiences. And I need these truths when I worry about the huge trials that could (and probably will) come my way someday. Thankful I read this.
October 2, 2014
One of the most heartfelt and real books I've ever read. It challenges me to become a better wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. Her peace through faith in God in the hardest of hard is beyond inspiring. Changed the way I relate to my family and show big love even in the midst of the rough edges of life. This book is such a blessing to me.
November 11, 2015
Such a hard but inspiring book. She will make you want to live life fuller, noticing all the small things and enjoying them. And she inspires you to dig deep with your children and love them well.
September 23, 2015
Any one who has struggled with cancer either in themselves in their family, or even felt like asking God "why?" needs to read this book. Kara's quiet voice and strength in an unimaginable situation was such an inspiration.
October 23, 2018
Heart wrenching true story of a mother (Kara Tippets) fight against cancer, which she succumbs to. She describes the array of emotions she and her husband (Jason) deal with. All of this whilst raising a family of four children and pastoring a church.
Read
November 8, 2020I first heard about The Hardest Peace through participating in Top Ten Tuesday. One blogger shared seven quotes from this book, and I found myself really inspired by them. Hoping that reading it would be an encouragement to me and my family, I reserved it from my local library.
Honestly, I'd just skimmed through Becky Johnson and Rachel Randolph's Nourished and thought it would be a similar ride. A few emotional moments, maybe a few quotes to add to my mentally inspired list. A halfhearted promise to myself to check it out a few months or years from now. Instead, what I found was more raw and heartbreaking, but at the same time wildly beautiful.
Instead of offering us advice or rattling off a list of resources that has helped her to live better, Kara meets us where she is. She courageously tears down all her walls, all the subtle disguises that scream "I'm fine", or even "I'm here to help you, not the other way around". She writes openly and honestly about the struggles she's faced, both in the past and now, and continually gives us a message of hope, in the midst of pain. Through Kara's words I was both reminded of how short life truly is, and of the wondrous love of God. His care despite the hard in our lives.
Cancer, and living through it, is a difficult subject to tackle. I'm not going to make any specific recommendations today, knowing that everyone's story is different, and everyone will react to Kara's words in a unique way. But if you still feel led to read this, it's so worth all the discomfort and brokenness that comes with reading a book like this, sharing about it, and learning how to live with your own walls down. Maybe, through Kara's journey you'll find peace in your own one too.
To read my full review of "The Hardest Peace", including discussion questions, click here:
https://steppingstonesbookreviews.blo...
Honestly, I'd just skimmed through Becky Johnson and Rachel Randolph's Nourished and thought it would be a similar ride. A few emotional moments, maybe a few quotes to add to my mentally inspired list. A halfhearted promise to myself to check it out a few months or years from now. Instead, what I found was more raw and heartbreaking, but at the same time wildly beautiful.
Instead of offering us advice or rattling off a list of resources that has helped her to live better, Kara meets us where she is. She courageously tears down all her walls, all the subtle disguises that scream "I'm fine", or even "I'm here to help you, not the other way around". She writes openly and honestly about the struggles she's faced, both in the past and now, and continually gives us a message of hope, in the midst of pain. Through Kara's words I was both reminded of how short life truly is, and of the wondrous love of God. His care despite the hard in our lives.
Cancer, and living through it, is a difficult subject to tackle. I'm not going to make any specific recommendations today, knowing that everyone's story is different, and everyone will react to Kara's words in a unique way. But if you still feel led to read this, it's so worth all the discomfort and brokenness that comes with reading a book like this, sharing about it, and learning how to live with your own walls down. Maybe, through Kara's journey you'll find peace in your own one too.
To read my full review of "The Hardest Peace", including discussion questions, click here:
https://steppingstonesbookreviews.blo...
February 25, 2018
“I do not believe you need to face cancer to see the value of looking for and naming the graces in your own moments, days, weeks, lifetime. To capture this beauty in your weariness, even if your story doesn’t look like mine, will enrich your moments, give you a new perspective, and help you lift your head in the impossibility and pain in living. Hard is hard.”
This is why I read this book in one day. No words can be added.
This is why I read this book in one day. No words can be added.
June 3, 2023
The writing wasn’t the best but Kara is a teacher and mom, not writer. She also was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer which by the end of the book had moved to her lymph system around her heart. It was very hard to read the letter from her to her four children and to read the letter from her husband, Jason, to her.
To quote her pastor husband, “all of us know something of this mystery of life. As you have read these words, I hope that you will move toward the One who knows the mystery and has a purpose in all things. “
To quote her pastor husband, “all of us know something of this mystery of life. As you have read these words, I hope that you will move toward the One who knows the mystery and has a purpose in all things. “
June 18, 2018
This book has made my journey of love peace and grace all the more sweet. I am loving harder and learning so much about grace in my world. Kara made me cry but in the middle of that I grew too.
January 20, 2022
Definitely good but hard book about someone who has been diagnosed and went through cancer journey and eventually died. It was very encouraging to see the hope that that author had in Jesus throughout her journey. And how she was handling life with God’s peace in her heart.
May 2, 2022
This one was a hard one to read. I shed many tears.
March 16, 2023
Loved learning her story. Biggest takeaway is looking for God’s grace in every season of life, especially in the hard.
July 23, 2022
This book. Wow. Kara's faith, brokenness, honesty and humility are huge factors in this book. Convicting, encouraging, emotional, and all together one I would own and read again.
October 10, 2014
"I'm so weary of my own story I could run away." Just reading those words makes me feel like crying. I have certainly felt that way at times, and I know many others who have, as well. Does anyone's life story play out the way they expect? Sometimes in the pain and uncertainty the ability to run away, even temporarily, would be most welcome. But this isn't a book about running away. It's a book about looking at life's difficulties and knowing: "...If God has called me to this hard story, His promise is one of sufficient grace."
Author Kara Tippetts is a young mother and pastor's wife who is living with the crushing reality of aggressive, metastasized cancer. Unless God radically intervenes, she is not long for this earth. With a heart broken for her husband and her four small children, Kara writes about her life's journey and how Jesus has met her at every turn, even in this stage, when it looks as though she will lose every hope and dream she had for this life. How can one have peace in such circumstances? Only by embracing God's grace and the belief that He is good and in control. "Grace is the sweet moment you never expect but turns up to get you through a day, an appointment, a reality you never, ever dreamed for yourself."
This is a timely message for a world who spends so much time on Facebook and Pinterest, looking at happy, shiny people and things. Those pictures do not reflect everyday reality. Walking in God's grace means you embrace truly living the life God has given you, and don't let yourself fall for the performance trap. It means living with humility and intentionality because God has you here for a reason. It means looking for what is truly beautiful and not just pretty. It means living faithfully in a world that barely even knows what that means anymore. "Tomorrow we get to wake up and be faithful. Whatever each step brings, and whatever comes, people will always disappoint us. But tomorrow, tomorrow we get to be faithful in that moment."
This isn't a book just for those who are fighting cancer. This is for anyone who knows what it is like to have broken dreams, unfulfilled desires, or suffering due to difficult circumstances. "...Suffering... is the gift you never wanted, the gift wrapped in confusion and brokenness and heartbreak."
Everyone faces twists and turns in their lives. Beauty comes when we are able to let God work out His purposes instead of clinging stubbornly to what we want. God is the redeemer of all things, and our pain does not have to devastate us if it drives us closer to Him. He is working. He is a good God. He is with you. "Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain, and hard, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the absence of God or good."
I received my copy of the book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.
This review originated at: http://reviewsbyerin.livejournal.com
Author Kara Tippetts is a young mother and pastor's wife who is living with the crushing reality of aggressive, metastasized cancer. Unless God radically intervenes, she is not long for this earth. With a heart broken for her husband and her four small children, Kara writes about her life's journey and how Jesus has met her at every turn, even in this stage, when it looks as though she will lose every hope and dream she had for this life. How can one have peace in such circumstances? Only by embracing God's grace and the belief that He is good and in control. "Grace is the sweet moment you never expect but turns up to get you through a day, an appointment, a reality you never, ever dreamed for yourself."
This is a timely message for a world who spends so much time on Facebook and Pinterest, looking at happy, shiny people and things. Those pictures do not reflect everyday reality. Walking in God's grace means you embrace truly living the life God has given you, and don't let yourself fall for the performance trap. It means living with humility and intentionality because God has you here for a reason. It means looking for what is truly beautiful and not just pretty. It means living faithfully in a world that barely even knows what that means anymore. "Tomorrow we get to wake up and be faithful. Whatever each step brings, and whatever comes, people will always disappoint us. But tomorrow, tomorrow we get to be faithful in that moment."
This isn't a book just for those who are fighting cancer. This is for anyone who knows what it is like to have broken dreams, unfulfilled desires, or suffering due to difficult circumstances. "...Suffering... is the gift you never wanted, the gift wrapped in confusion and brokenness and heartbreak."
Everyone faces twists and turns in their lives. Beauty comes when we are able to let God work out His purposes instead of clinging stubbornly to what we want. God is the redeemer of all things, and our pain does not have to devastate us if it drives us closer to Him. He is working. He is a good God. He is with you. "Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain, and hard, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the absence of God or good."
I received my copy of the book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.
This review originated at: http://reviewsbyerin.livejournal.com
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