Book Review: Hope Overcomes Suffering
By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher
Book Title: LIVING HOPE: AWAKENING TO FAITH, PEACE AND PURPOSE IN TOUGH TIMES
Author: Gerard Long
Publisher: Awakening to God Ministries
Release Date: June 2021
Gerard Long’s book LIVING HOPE is a heart-rending, yet uplifting portrait of suffering and hope. Suffering has always been a great challenge to faith.
Gerard and his wife, Jean, have experienced incredible loss with the suicide of their son and the drowning death of their daughter, both children had so much to offer the world. Of course, these events shook them to the depth of the souls, but in the midst of their suffering, God touched them, and this book provides a unique lens through which we can better see and understand God in our pain.
While my wife, Lili, was suffering throughout the last year of her life, I would read her from this book, and even the most tragic events were written so inspiringly from a faith perspective that she wanted to hear more. By the way, Lili, hated hospital movies and books. This is not a hospital book. This is about faith overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil. I finished the book after Lili died, and, in the midst of my grief, it reinvigorated my faith in Jesus Christ.
I recommend the book highly, because it will provide you comfort and hope and stir many to renew their faith in God and commitment to His plan for their life in the midst of the tragedy of our fallen world.
Years ago, the church had a fully developed theology of suffering. The subject of why bad things happen to good people has been neglected too long. Gerard’s book re-establishes a biblical, faith-filled, encouraging, and uplifting view and understanding of suffering in the light of the reality of the eternal love of the One Triune God.
I could not recommend any book more than I can recommend LIVING HOPE. Every page is a blessing.
