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Beyond the Shallow: How Suffering Led Me to the Deep End of Grace
See the lavish grace of Jesus's love for you....
As Christians, we commonly portray grace as something that comes to us in the form of a paycheck and healthy bodies. By wading into the deep end of suffering, I have learned that God's grace is much more evident in the mire and the dung of life. Amid deep pain and suffering, I found myself at the grace-filled cross where his glory is revealed in the unseen as I struggle with what is transient.
Michelle grew up in church and believed in what she calls Christian Do good, get good. She adopted this unspoken mantra during her teen and young adult years and even into her early married life. But when suffering came to her door, she returned to Scripture to learn the truth of the gospel. She learned to see grace through the loss of expectation and the loss of three of her six children.
As you listen to this book, Michelle's hope is that you will see the lavish grace of Jesus's love for you, and-if you are walking through immense suffering-that you will understand Jesus is most certainly enough.
As Christians, we commonly portray grace as something that comes to us in the form of a paycheck and healthy bodies. By wading into the deep end of suffering, I have learned that God's grace is much more evident in the mire and the dung of life. Amid deep pain and suffering, I found myself at the grace-filled cross where his glory is revealed in the unseen as I struggle with what is transient.
Michelle grew up in church and believed in what she calls Christian Do good, get good. She adopted this unspoken mantra during her teen and young adult years and even into her early married life. But when suffering came to her door, she returned to Scripture to learn the truth of the gospel. She learned to see grace through the loss of expectation and the loss of three of her six children.
As you listen to this book, Michelle's hope is that you will see the lavish grace of Jesus's love for you, and-if you are walking through immense suffering-that you will understand Jesus is most certainly enough.
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Published June 19, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 29, 2019
Is this a story of a family’s loss and grief? Yes. Is this also a story of hope and faith? Indeed, it is. But it’s profoundly more: this book is the testimony of the suffering God of grace who dwells in the darkness with us, holds us in his love, and carries us forward into a life in which he is the ultimate answer to all our questions. We died with him. We live in him. And in his ongoing love we find our solid anchor. Read this book: weep, rejoice, and hope, for the God confessed here is the living and life-giving Savior.
November 19, 2019
This book is full of solid theology, open vulnerability and Jesus! Michelle’s story and time spent in “Sunday school” is a help to me, as someone who has been alongside friends and family through suffering, or for those who are going through it themselves. We can all use a reminder that Jesus is enough!
January 1, 2020
This book was moving and challenging, sorrowful yet sweet, as Michelle dives deep into what it means to abide in Jesus in the midst of some of the most painful circumstances this world offers up. I appreciated her humble heart and learning spirit, and the way she graciously held up some of the most misused scriptures and explored how they are often misunderstood and lead believers to discouragement and disillusionment. Her study of God's word leads the reader to an understanding of how much deeper and sweeter and more comforting is the truth it actually contains. Thank you Michelle, for your vulnerable sharing that allows us all to draw closer to Jesus through your experiences and reflections on his grace and mercy.
December 7, 2019
This book is weighty. It is is about learning to sit in pain, when expecting and desiring an easy pain-free life. Maybe not easy, but at least not wrought with the depth of suffering that really loving, and really grieving bring. This book is a beautiful example of wrestling with suffering and pain and holding onto belief in the goodness of who God is. It shows our heartfelt crying out pain, and processes and corrects the "Christian-ese" things that people say in the midst of suffering. It also reminds us of the God's presence with us through alllll situations, and how even though we want to only see grace in our blessings, there is grace in suffering too. I am sure I'll need to reread this one for all of these reminders again.
p. 17: There were no magic fix-it words to bring my friend's parent back. I realized for the first time that having nothing to say in moments of another's grief is uncomfortable, but it is okay to say nothing.
p. 52: The thing about grief is we all respond in such different ways. My husband didn't respond to grief the way I wanted him to, and I didn't respond to grief the way I wanted to. We may be married but we are still two very different people. When we assume what the other is thinking, we put up walls to keep each other out. I pushed everyone away. Either they weren't responding the way I wanted them to, or I didn't want to burden anyone and pretended everything was fine.
p.55: When I read this verse while I was on bedrest with Eli and during my grief and cynicism, I thought, "He gives me my desires when I seek him, so why don't I have any of my desires (my children healthy and alive) fulfilled?" My heart was misplaced. I was looking at the transient. I wanted my pain to be relieved, but I wasn't going to get that; rather I was going to learn that Jesus was the desire of my heart. I would seek him and find him. He would fill me to the brim with the gospel of his love and mercy and lavishing grace.
p. 89: It's interesting though that there are 66 books in the Bible and each book touches on suffering and grief. Every single one. In some way, suffering or hardship is described. Why is it that folks say to a sufferer, "Go read Job"? Because he suffered the most? I beg to differ. Jesus suffered more.
p. 119: Grief may be crippling but it is also a healing, grace-filled tough emotion. Our Lord grieves our sin and aches for us. Jesus grieved his friend Lazarus. There is no greater grace than the grace shown to us by our Savior who knows our pain and suffering.
p. 17: There were no magic fix-it words to bring my friend's parent back. I realized for the first time that having nothing to say in moments of another's grief is uncomfortable, but it is okay to say nothing.
p. 52: The thing about grief is we all respond in such different ways. My husband didn't respond to grief the way I wanted him to, and I didn't respond to grief the way I wanted to. We may be married but we are still two very different people. When we assume what the other is thinking, we put up walls to keep each other out. I pushed everyone away. Either they weren't responding the way I wanted them to, or I didn't want to burden anyone and pretended everything was fine.
p.55: When I read this verse while I was on bedrest with Eli and during my grief and cynicism, I thought, "He gives me my desires when I seek him, so why don't I have any of my desires (my children healthy and alive) fulfilled?" My heart was misplaced. I was looking at the transient. I wanted my pain to be relieved, but I wasn't going to get that; rather I was going to learn that Jesus was the desire of my heart. I would seek him and find him. He would fill me to the brim with the gospel of his love and mercy and lavishing grace.
p. 89: It's interesting though that there are 66 books in the Bible and each book touches on suffering and grief. Every single one. In some way, suffering or hardship is described. Why is it that folks say to a sufferer, "Go read Job"? Because he suffered the most? I beg to differ. Jesus suffered more.
p. 119: Grief may be crippling but it is also a healing, grace-filled tough emotion. Our Lord grieves our sin and aches for us. Jesus grieved his friend Lazarus. There is no greater grace than the grace shown to us by our Savior who knows our pain and suffering.
December 6, 2019
Bates gets right to the point in her sharing of heartache and grief. The author humbly and graciously shares her experiences of loss. In doing so, she reveals the heartbreaking reality that we live in a broken world and we endure severe mercies. But she doesn’t stop there. Reading her book is like sitting down with a friend to talk about the hard stuff- it’s so rewarding. You will leave being reminded of truth and encouraged.
April 11, 2020
Author Michelle Bates takes you deep into the tragedy that seems to plague her young family. Revealing one heartbreak after another, all the while leaning into Jesus for comfort and support. . She is so vulnerable to let us view her sorrow and look deep into the heart of a mother who is hurting with such a fresh pain. I found it hard to put this book down as each moment was filled with so much love for her family and fighting to understand Why? She let love abound and through her sorrow found Grace. Reminds me of how Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is a must read, true and authentic, with sorrow and pain, but also filled with so much love, hope, faith and grace
November 26, 2019
Wow! Michelle's story strips and peels back the surface Christian-ese response to pain & suffering to demonstrate how Jesus is there to meet us in our brokenness. The Gospel of redemption so clearly discerned that you will be weeping thru it's entirety as she pens a courageous rawness to say it like it is.
March 23, 2020
I appreciated the author's honesty about the immense pain of her suffering, and the fact that it wasn't an easy or immediate process to learn how to cling to Christ and rejoice in Him in the midst of acute hardship. Honest, and full of eternal hope.
March 25, 2020
Amazing Plain and simple, Amazing. A must read!
March 7, 2020
Beyond the Shallow is a raw look at this families grief. Michelle is open and honest about her feelings and struggles. She has maintained her faith and learned to look at grace differently than most. This book hit very close to home for me and was an emotional read.
August 9, 2023
The story is compelling. The writing? Not as much.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews