Flirting with Darkness: Building Hope in the Face of Depression

by Ben Courson

"Ben shows that the black keys of wistfulness and sorrow can make music every bit as beautiful as the white keys. These pages will train your ears to hear heaven's music once again."--JEREMY CAMP, Gold-charting singer and subject of the movie I Still Believe"With depth and clarity, Ben draws on his personal experience to offer you the practical tools and the courage you need to retaliate against the weight of darkness and walk forward in freedom."--LEVI LUSKO, pastor and bestselling authorBen Courson's mission is to inject hope into a generation plagued by anxiety and despair. In Flirting with Darkness, Ben encourages you to not accept depression as a permanent state, but instead turn to the One who will champion your every struggle. He offers up the tools that helped him cling to God during his darkest moments, helping you discover how... shifting your focus from your problems to God's promises allows you to recognize your purpose finding a tribe in friends and family will help you move beyond loneliness counseling and medication can be important parts of God's plan for your deliverance from mental illness The childlike wonder and biblical insights in Flirting with Darkness will let you glimpse beyond your current pain to see the light in your own story.

Genres: Christian

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2020

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Courson is writing this from a personal perspective on what helped him overcome depression, and there are some really powerful stories and analogies that can help us grapple with this. That being said, I struggled with the writing style which is informal and conversational with a lot of points that don't always seem to flow systematically and can veer off into really interesting scientific, historical or even fictional facts that at times distracted me from the point Ben was in fact making. I didn't find Part 3 added that much to the book following on from Part 2. That being said I was able to take away some helpful thoughts and "weapons" that I have already been putting to use in my day to day life and as such would still recommend this book. You dont have to be dealing with depression to read this and arm yourself with techniques that help keep the darkness away. I appreciate the courage it took to share these personal struggles publicly in this book in order to help others, and I hope everyone who reads it will take something away from it that will bring them strength.

[Ylva · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can we as Christians take depression seriously? Ben Courson attempts to answer this question in this book with anecdotes and insights from his own struggle with depression.

I think it's very important to note that the author isn't a therapist and thus, the book doesn't dig very deep into scientific discoveries and medical/therapeutic treatment of depression. It doesn't attempt to replace a therapy and should not be used as that.

What I really appreciated about the book was that it didn't present depression as something that can simply be "prayed away" or is just a consequence of "not having enough faith".



Disclaimer: I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Leeann Bergeron · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I did find some encouraging/ interesting bits in this book, I'm glad I didn't read it while I was depressed... much came across to me as glib. Overall I found it scattered and very poorly edited...especially Part 3, which repeated much from previous chapters and read more like a collection of someone's blog posts stuck together. On a positive note, the short attention span way it was written made it very easy to speed read. If you're deep in depression, I'd spend your time on better books.

[Geo Hendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good very helpful!