Description:
Millions live with sorrow, trauma, and grief. Jeffrey Munroe and a national array of experts explore true stories of resiliency, hope, and faith as people transform pain and find fresh inspiration.
Brief description: Jeffrey Munroe is editor of the Reformed Journal, a digital magazine which explores issues of faith and life from a generously Reformed perspective. He also is the author of Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and Western Theological Seminary and an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. He served in the non-denominational youth ministry Young Life for three decades in West Michigan and Europe, and served as Executive Vice President of Western Theological Seminary for close to a decade. He and his wife Gretchen live in Holland, Michigan, and are the parents of two adult children.
Review Quotes:
The question is not if we will suffer in this life, but rather, how we build resilient souls and nurture a durable hope when we inevitably face suffering. Beginning with his own powerful example, each of the true stories in Jeff Munroe's Telling Stories in the Dark model for us all a path toward a redemptive stewardship of pain that we would do well to ponder, pursue, and proclaim to others.
Jeff Crosby, author of The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of our Hearts
At the core of the Christian mystery is the notion of redemptive suffering, how brokenness becomes beatitude and grief is transformed by grace, how gratitude inoculates against our grievances. Jeff Munroe identifies the power of telling our own stories -- sharing our experience, strength, and hopes -- as the passe-partout for our spiritual journey: life's master-key.
Thomas Lynch, poet and author of The Undertaking and Bone Rosary
Jeffrey Munroe has written an unusual book. It is hard to classify, which is one of its strengths. He tells "stories in the dark, " stories of suffering in all of their anguishing and horrible variety. He writes with grace, elegance, and empathy. However painful, the stories have a strange beauty to them. As he puts it, he is trying to "play" with pain. It sounds irreverent. It is in fact the opposite. But he also reflects on those stories, often by interacting with professionals who provide a larger perspective, about trauma, forgiveness, injustice, and more. It is this combination of powerful stories and deep, insightful reflection on those stories that makes this book so moving, compelling, and informative. I read it in one sitting. It drew me in, kept me there, and captivated me.
Gerald L. Sittser, professor emeritus of theology, Whitworth University, and author of A Grace Disguised
Jeff Munroe avoids the quicksand of theodicy to focus instead on the stories of people whose faith has survived great suffering, which he tells with warmth, generosity, and compassion.
Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer. Professor of the Practice of Religion and Literature, Yale Divinity School
In John 16, Jesus tells his disciples, "In this world you will face trouble, " and he's right. We will. Jeffrey Munroe does not shy away from the suffering in the world, but instead invites the reader to explore stories of pain and suffering in a way that shines a light in the darkness. I would recommend this book to anyone who is presently suffering or is suffering-adjacent. In other words: This book is for everyone.
April Fiet, author of The Sacred Pulse: Holy Rhythms for Overwhelmed Souls