It
took Kasey a long time to get it. She splashed in the shallows of
Christianity for decades. She became plagued with questions and
doubts. “How is it,” she writes, “that this devoted Christian
girl from East Texas who sang in the church choir and led small-group
Bible study suddenly found herself tossing back a bottleful of Xanax
to end it all?” (ix)
Kasey
has written this book so we may no longer just talk about a life
filled with hope and peace, but actually live it. That we might live
not as victim but as victor. That we would strip away our masks.
That a passion deep within our soul would be ignited. That we would
no longer wade in the shallows but plunge into the deep end with the
Lord.
She
takes us through the journey, down the winding road of our past,
seeing its potential to make us stronger people of God. We hit the
rest stop of the present, keeping our focus on God. We feel the
brisk wind of the future, God inviting us into his plans.
She
shares her own story – raped as a teen, promiscuity following,
hospitalized for an eating disorder, cutting herself, living a life
of hypocrisy. She realized that it was not what was done to her but
her reactions to them that were important. Her mistakes in the past
did not have to determine her legacy. As with David, “God can give
you a new legacy and allow you to pass on a blessing, not a curse, to
the next generation.” (39)
She
helps us understand the pain from our past and why God allows it.
“What I have learned along the way … is that it is better to know
God than to know the answers!” (55) She takes us through the steps
of letting God heal our hurts. Then she works on the present and how
God will still love us in the midst of our failures. She pays
particular attention to how Satan can deceive us and what to do when
we sin.
The
last section of her book is on the future. We can look to the future
with hope. She reminds us that the path to maturity is not an easy
one. She encourages us to not be complacent, remembering, “there
is nothing sweeter in this world than an intimate relationship with
Jesus Christ.” (219)
Kasey
Van Norman is the founder and president of Kasey Van Norman
Ministries in College Station, Texas. She and her husband with in
Texas with their two children.
Read the first chapter here.
Find out more about her ministry here.
watch on tyndale.com
I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers for the purpose of this review.
I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers for the purpose of this review.
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