This is the moving story of Matt Chandler's battle with a potentially fatal brain tumor. But it's also the stories of those in his church family who taught him, and teach him, how to walk with joy in sorrow. Readers will find encouragement and strength to get through tough times, or to support others to do so.
The cycle of joy and sorrow is perennial. Yet, they are largely of our own making. There is no market where we can go and buy either. As their source is not outside but within us, therefore, it is possible for us to transform or control them too. This is a vastly complex subject that man has struggled with for aeons. In Understanding Joy and Sorrow, Acharya Mahapragya, the tenth Acharya of the Jain Swetambar Terapanth sect and one of the most respected Jain thinkers of the world, outlines the causes, aspects and remedies of our unhappiness in twenty-one succinct chapters. Given here are chapters that address the role of anger, stress and desire in sorrow and those like detachment and fearlessness which help us be happy. Drawing upon anecdotes and examples, he holds up a mirror to our innermost fears and concerns. Alongside are five key exercises such as kayotsarga and antaryatra that provide a pathway to reaching mental calm. Kayotsarga is the process of relaxation of all the muscles in the body that helps one to release stress; antaryatra is the focussing of attention on the body's centre of energy to reach a state of balance and peace. Together with the other exercises given in the book these make it one of the most accessible books available on the subject, one that any reader can keep handy and benefit from by dipping into time and again.
A book of poetic essays written in English, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is full of religious inspirations. With the twelve illustrations drawn by the author himself, the book took more than eleven years to be formulated and perfected and is Gibran's best-known work. It represents the height of his literary career as he came to be noted as ‘the Bard of Washington Street.’ Captivating and vivified with feeling, The Prophet has been translated into forty languages throughout the world, and is considered the most widely read book of the twentieth century. Its first edition of 1300 copies sold out within a month.
Much-Afraid had been in the service of the Chief Shepherd, whose great flocks were pastured down in the Valley of Humiliation. She lived with her friends and fellow workers Mercy and Peace in a tranquil little white cottage in the village of Much-Trembling. She loved her work and desired intensely to please the Chief Shepherd, but happy as she was in most ways, she was conscious of several things which hindered her in her work and caused her much secret distress and shame. Here is the allegorical tale of Much-Afraid, an every-woman searching for guidance from God to lead her to a higher place.
From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
“My vocation was supposed to be joy, and I was speaking at funerals.” Shortly after being hired by Yale University to study joy, Angela Gorrell got word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant—completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in. But joy was closer at hand than it seemed. As she began volunteering at a women’s maximum-security prison, she met people who suffered extensively yet still showed a tremendous capacity for joy. Talking with these women, many of whom had struggled with addiction and suicidal thoughts themselves, she realized: “Joy doesn’t obliterate grief. . . . Instead, joy has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and even—sometimes most especially—in the midst of suffering.” This is the story of Angela’s discovery of an authentic, grounded Christian joy. But even more, it is an invitation for others to seize upon this more resilient joy as a counteragent to the twenty-first-century epidemics of despair, addiction, and suicide—a call to action for communities that yearn to find joy and are willing to “walk together through the shadows” to find it.
An Invitation to Join the Journey Every family writes its own unique story. In this transparent and moving account, you’ll be inspired as Mike and Debbie McCrum tell the story of their family’s challenging journey of faith, from tragedy to triumph...and purpose. Finding Joy in the Midst of Sorrow is written to help families: Discover the purposeful role God has planned for their lives. Learn how to navigate life’s unexpected circumstances. Witness a family bravely persevering when every instinct screams QUIT! Pass on to future generations a legacy of God’s hope and faithfulness. Find the courage to face their fears and embrace the possibilities that were created just for them...as they live in the joy of trusting God! “People today yearn for an example of how to navigate through life’s tragedies. Mike and Debbie’s powerful story will grip your heart and inspire you to valiantly trust God no matter what challenges you face. This book transcends time and will be a valued treasure for generations to come.” Crawford W. Loritts, Jr. is Senior Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia.
