Desperate Hope

If you or someone you know is walking a dark road, I have an incredible book to recommend for you.



Desperate Hope by Candi Pearson-Shelton
David C Cook/February 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4347-6614-4/224 pages/softcover/$12.99
ABOUT THE BOOK (from the publisher):
As her older brother battled for his life in the ICU, Candi Pearson-Shelton sat waiting and praying with her family for a miracle. The Scriptures were more precious to them in those hours than ever. As Candi poured over the words from Isaiah chapter 40, a song was born. A voice cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.... Then every eye will see the glory of the Lord revealed. The days and months and years that would follow would be painful, but Candi and her family found in the words of this biblical song a sort of mission—a call to find the glory of the Lord shining through the sorrow and to reflect that glory to all those around them.

And when death finally came, by the grace of God, they were able to find purpose through the pain. In fact, they found a depth of beauty in the abyss of the loss that they never could have imagined. Candi discovered that her vision was too narrow, that her lens was too tainted by her own perceptions of fairness and justice and her own desire to control the outcome.

In the fiercely honest yet faithful book, Desperate Hope: When Faith in God Overcame My Despair, Candi shares the lessons that came to them along their journey, offering a song of praise to One who, in the midst of tragedy, pain and confusion, revealed not only His glory but also beauty, unexpected graces, a hope more grounded in faith and a shifted perspective that changed nothing but somehow made all the difference.

“I write these thoughts out of necessity,” the author reflects. “There is value in recording the gentle whispers and hard-learned faith lessons that make up the aftermath, springing up like tender shoots of vivid green grass through the contrasting blackened dry soot. These are my blades of grass, the lessons in the aftermath, told with the heart of an adventurer fresh from the adventure, brimming with tales of terror and scars, of beauty and redemption.”

All of the profits from the sale of Desperate Hope will go to the Rick Pearson Memorial Fund, a non-profit that exists to extend the hope of Christ to others by championing the interests and organizations that Rick passionately supported. Monies that are donated to the Rick Pearson Memorial Fund are used to help support organizations like Compassion International, Bigstuf Camps, The 410 Bridge, Passion Conferences and most recently, a scholarship fund for students who want to pursue a ministry of music with an emphasis on missions.

There is a song entitled “One Breath, Then Another,” that will accompany the book. There will be a code inside each book to redeem online for a free download of the song.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Candi Pearson-Shelton is a worship leader, songwriter and independent artist. Known for her involvement with the Passion worship movement, she also wrote and performed the title track on the Dove-award-winning album, Glory Revealed. She and her husband Jonathan live in Southern California with their son, Elias.

Desperate Hope, by Candi Pearson-Shelton
from David C. Cook on Vimeo.

MY THOUGHTS:
This is a beautiful book. Candi Pearson-Shelton shares the faith lessons she and her family learned during her brother's 40-day fight with cancer. This is no Pollyanna book about accentuating the positive and pasting on a smile. Rather, it is an honest, sometimes painfully so, account of Candi and her family's journey and how, at every turn, they saw God.

In every one of these moments--every instance of doubt and disbelief, anger and grief, hope and renewal--we saw God happen. Not even one of these many events, those I have named and those that aren't mentioned, failed to open our eyes to the depths of God's great love and His divine providence. . .As every eye looked toward heaven, in those forty days of purpose, the inevitable happened: We beheld His glory. It shone learly luminously through the dark of distress. Every eye was fixated on the manifest glory of our Lord, the landscape of which became our home, our resting place. . .the core of who we are was changed because of who God showed Himself to be. (pp. 163-164)

Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from Rick's own journal as well as a testimony of how God used the blog chronicling Rick's illness to bring together believers from all over the world and create a cyberspace fellowship that is a beautiful picture of the church described in Acts.

Don't miss this incredible and inspiring book! You may purchase it directly from the publisher, from Amazon or your Christian bookstore.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from David C. Cook as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”