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Seeking Solace: Discovering grace in life's hard places
Seeking Solace speaks soul to soul with the intimate, confessional style of a memoir. Joy Lenton offers us a glimpse into her world with the aching immediacy and transparency of a poet. She shares her painful past and challenging circumstances to reveal how she has learned how to seek solace and find peace, and how you can do so too.
Her journey leads to discerning and discovering grace in life's hard places. It's a peek behind the scenes look at 'Love, Life, Loss and Faith' which leads to deeper understanding of how interlinked they can be. Here you have an open invitation to step into her shoes, picture yourself within these pages and see how they reveal hope for this life and beyond.
Her journey leads to discerning and discovering grace in life's hard places. It's a peek behind the scenes look at 'Love, Life, Loss and Faith' which leads to deeper understanding of how interlinked they can be. Here you have an open invitation to step into her shoes, picture yourself within these pages and see how they reveal hope for this life and beyond.
- GenresPoetry
139 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 7, 2016
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Joy Lenton
6 books14 followersJoy Lenton is a former nurse from Norfolk, UK. She is a contemplative Christian writer, poet and blogger who loves books, dark chocolate, good coffee and great conversation.
As a grateful grace embracer, she has a special affinity for the hurting. Her mission is to bless and encourage others by sharing the hope and joy we have in Jesus.
She is the author of Embracing Hope: Soul Food to Help Chase Away the Blues' and 'Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life’s Hard Places.'
Joy is also a contributor to 'Taking off The Mask: Daring To Be the Person God Created You to Be' by Claire Musters, 'Mosaic of Grace: God's Beautiful Reshaping of Our Broken Lives' by James Prescott, and ‘Finding Purpose: Rediscovering Meaning in a Life with Chronic Illness’ by Cindee Snider Re.
As a woman with a painful past, who is an M.E, arthritis, hypermobility syndrome and fibromyalgia sufferer, Joy writes with a desire to support and encourage those who live with chronic illness or might be going through painful and challenging circumstances.
You can find her sharing reflections, poetry and prayers at her joylenton.com blog and mostly poetry at poetryjoy.com, as well as contributing to the Godspacelight blog.
She has been published in several poetry anthologies, including Celebrations - 15 Years Of the People's Poetry, and acted as a guest poet for Jenneth Graser's summer 2018 Poetry As Therapy Online Retreat.
As a grateful grace embracer, she has a special affinity for the hurting. Her mission is to bless and encourage others by sharing the hope and joy we have in Jesus.
She is the author of Embracing Hope: Soul Food to Help Chase Away the Blues' and 'Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life’s Hard Places.'
Joy is also a contributor to 'Taking off The Mask: Daring To Be the Person God Created You to Be' by Claire Musters, 'Mosaic of Grace: God's Beautiful Reshaping of Our Broken Lives' by James Prescott, and ‘Finding Purpose: Rediscovering Meaning in a Life with Chronic Illness’ by Cindee Snider Re.
As a woman with a painful past, who is an M.E, arthritis, hypermobility syndrome and fibromyalgia sufferer, Joy writes with a desire to support and encourage those who live with chronic illness or might be going through painful and challenging circumstances.
You can find her sharing reflections, poetry and prayers at her joylenton.com blog and mostly poetry at poetryjoy.com, as well as contributing to the Godspacelight blog.
She has been published in several poetry anthologies, including Celebrations - 15 Years Of the People's Poetry, and acted as a guest poet for Jenneth Graser's summer 2018 Poetry As Therapy Online Retreat.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2016
This beautiful poetry collection by Christian poet and blogger Joy Lenton is both inspiring and transformative. Joy's thoughtful words don't skip along life's surface offering easy answers. In her own daily walk with the pain of chronic illness, her own wounds and struggles from the darker side of human experience, Joy draws from the wells of brokenness to bring refreshing springs of hope to her readers. Joy's poems are alive with unflinching honesty and a faithful tracing of God's love through both the deepest shadows and the exquisite light of thankfulness.
Joy conveys this through carefully crafted images, heart-healing metaphors and her unique gift of ministry through words. Joy gets alongside the reader, facing life's difficult and challenging truths many less courageous writers would sooner shy away from, while never for a moment letting go of the hand of her Lord. This little book is a delight. The framing "Prayer Whispers" make this a perfect accompaniment in daily quiet times and times when the heart feels burdened by inner agonies that can be hard to express in prayer. Joy's book will be a helpful companion on any journey of faith that yearns for authenticity.
Love, Life, Loss, Faith - the book's sections can be travelled as a journey or dipped into when needed as a labyrinth of solace on your daily pilgrimage. I highly recommend Joy's "Seeking Solace" as a wise friend on your spiritual travels, and wish you the blessings that I have encountered through the touching places Joy offers here.
Joy conveys this through carefully crafted images, heart-healing metaphors and her unique gift of ministry through words. Joy gets alongside the reader, facing life's difficult and challenging truths many less courageous writers would sooner shy away from, while never for a moment letting go of the hand of her Lord. This little book is a delight. The framing "Prayer Whispers" make this a perfect accompaniment in daily quiet times and times when the heart feels burdened by inner agonies that can be hard to express in prayer. Joy's book will be a helpful companion on any journey of faith that yearns for authenticity.
Love, Life, Loss, Faith - the book's sections can be travelled as a journey or dipped into when needed as a labyrinth of solace on your daily pilgrimage. I highly recommend Joy's "Seeking Solace" as a wise friend on your spiritual travels, and wish you the blessings that I have encountered through the touching places Joy offers here.
March 24, 2016
Pain is nobody's joy. But it is Joy Lenton's constant companion.
Joy describes herself on her blog, Words of Joy, as "wife, mother, M.E (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) and chronic illness sufferer, poet and blogger who writes about issues of life and faith from a Christian perspective."
Through the power of story and poetry, Joy opens her life to readers in a transparent expression of trial and triumph--with Christ at the center of all things, in whom she takes both joy--and solace.
Her regular blog posts are liberally peppered with passionate original verse and poetry drawing the reader into her daily life with pain. But in her latest book compilation of poetry, Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life's Hard Places, she extends an invitation to share her journey in a very intimate way.
Sandwiched between two "whispers" of God's voice inviting the reader to settle into His Presence, there are four chapters: Love, Life, Loss, and Faith. The Love chapter captures imagery of a young bride taking joy in wedded bliss. Reality invades idyllic days in Life, and eventually beds of roses are wracked with thorns and decay in Loss.
Enter "life's hard places" noted in the book's subtitle. The writing begins with a broad view of brokenness common to all: "In every pew sits a broken heart/In every church we're falling apart."
Soon the tone zeros in on Joy's personal relationship with brokenness and pain from childhood to the place of the physical weights that keep her bound. I loved the likening to Cinderella: "Sitting in ashes--I shiver/cold and dream/. . . limp with longing/as I ache to fly free." The selections in this chapter plumb the depths of a heart truly scarred by the rigors of pain, drowning in fear, loss, toil, weariness, grief, sorrow, anxiety, and hopelessness. At times I wanted to look away. But the author does not release the reader so easily. A sense of despair tempted me to close the book on Joy's pain--until the Faith chapter loomed large with the turn of a page. And pain turned swiftly to joy.
My favorite phrase came when, addressing God, she rejoices: "You write old stories with new endings . . ."
Joy's faith buoys her pain to a place of transformation where there is "no lingering sting". I cheered with her in triumph and the hope her words are empowered to weave in any aching heart in Faith: "Now with our Captain at the helm, these surging tides no longer overwhelm."
Joy's pain is not her undoing--but the making of her. She draws purpose from sour wells and finds the solace she seeks. Her words are mile-markers directing readers on their own journey towards solace in the healing presence of the Lord. Here's a poetry book to tuck by your Bible as a devotional respite when hard places intrude.
Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life's Hard Places is available on Amazon.
Visit Joy Lenton blogging at www.wordsofjoy75.blogspot.com.
Joy describes herself on her blog, Words of Joy, as "wife, mother, M.E (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) and chronic illness sufferer, poet and blogger who writes about issues of life and faith from a Christian perspective."
Through the power of story and poetry, Joy opens her life to readers in a transparent expression of trial and triumph--with Christ at the center of all things, in whom she takes both joy--and solace.
Her regular blog posts are liberally peppered with passionate original verse and poetry drawing the reader into her daily life with pain. But in her latest book compilation of poetry, Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life's Hard Places, she extends an invitation to share her journey in a very intimate way.
Sandwiched between two "whispers" of God's voice inviting the reader to settle into His Presence, there are four chapters: Love, Life, Loss, and Faith. The Love chapter captures imagery of a young bride taking joy in wedded bliss. Reality invades idyllic days in Life, and eventually beds of roses are wracked with thorns and decay in Loss.
Enter "life's hard places" noted in the book's subtitle. The writing begins with a broad view of brokenness common to all: "In every pew sits a broken heart/In every church we're falling apart."
Soon the tone zeros in on Joy's personal relationship with brokenness and pain from childhood to the place of the physical weights that keep her bound. I loved the likening to Cinderella: "Sitting in ashes--I shiver/cold and dream/. . . limp with longing/as I ache to fly free." The selections in this chapter plumb the depths of a heart truly scarred by the rigors of pain, drowning in fear, loss, toil, weariness, grief, sorrow, anxiety, and hopelessness. At times I wanted to look away. But the author does not release the reader so easily. A sense of despair tempted me to close the book on Joy's pain--until the Faith chapter loomed large with the turn of a page. And pain turned swiftly to joy.
My favorite phrase came when, addressing God, she rejoices: "You write old stories with new endings . . ."
Joy's faith buoys her pain to a place of transformation where there is "no lingering sting". I cheered with her in triumph and the hope her words are empowered to weave in any aching heart in Faith: "Now with our Captain at the helm, these surging tides no longer overwhelm."
Joy's pain is not her undoing--but the making of her. She draws purpose from sour wells and finds the solace she seeks. Her words are mile-markers directing readers on their own journey towards solace in the healing presence of the Lord. Here's a poetry book to tuck by your Bible as a devotional respite when hard places intrude.
Seeking Solace: Discovering Grace in Life's Hard Places is available on Amazon.
Visit Joy Lenton blogging at www.wordsofjoy75.blogspot.com.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews