Beautiful Hope

WE LIVE IN A CULTURE that produces hopelessness with astounding consistency. When everything seems chaotic and we are faced with a multitude of negative realities, we might be tempted to say that nothing makes sense anymore. But we are not alone¿God walks with us and his presence fills us with hope. Because of this we are able to smile in the midst of our difficulties. Despair is defeated because God is with us. Hope does not disappoint!What gives you hope? What are your hopes and dreams¿for yourself, your children, your church, your community, your nation? What sustains that hope and turns those dreams into reality? What are some of the unique ways you bring hope to people in your life? The contributors featured in Beautiful Hope offer intensely personal answers to these questions. Some of them are well-known authors and speakers, but many are ordinary Catholics dealing with everyday life with allits challenges and problems, just like you. Their stories are meant to spark your ownexploration of hope and increase its abundance in your life.Today many are worried about the future and what it holds. Many are concerned about the future of our Church. If we are to become people who can shine the light of faith into the darkness of our world, things must change. We need an infusion of hope so we can see more clearly and live boldly as children of God.

Hope Carpenter opens up about her personal struggles that nearly destroyed her family, her church, and her ministry, but then God did something miraculous—out of her brokenness, He made something beautiful. As co-pastor of one of the nation's largest megachurches, Hope Carpenter had perfected the roles of supportive wife, good mother, devoted worship leader, and dutiful homemaker. But inside, she was secretly ashamed, sad, and afraid. She didn't know who she was, and she didn't know how to ask for help without bringing down the whole façade. A series of bad choices led to multiple affairs; her husband kicked her out and announced from the pulpit of their church that their marriage was over. Hope was sure her life was done. But in her lowest moments, something beautiful happened. God met her there, and, with a lot of hard work, time, and mountains of therapy, she started to understand the pain that had caused her to act out. She and her family faced their brokenness together, and in powerful acts of forgiveness only God could have arranged, they all found real breakthrough and healing. Ron and Hope rebuilt their marriage and their family, and their ministry thrives today. In The Most Beautiful Disaster, Hope helps readers understand the lasting impact of childhood trauma and gives readers practical steps to uncovering the root of pain in their own lives. She shows how small decisions can lead to big changes, and helps readers find healing and wholeness in Scripture and prayer. Ultimately, readers will be led to hope, reconciliation, and true freedom.

In Hope Sings, So Beautiful, award-winning author Christopher Pramuk offers a mosaic of images and sketches for thinking and praying through difficult questions about race. The reader will encounter the perspectives of artists, poets, and theologians from many different ethnic and racial communities. This richly illustrated book is not primarily sociological or ethnographic in approach. Rather, its horizon is shaped by questions of theology, spirituality, and pastoral practice. Pramuk's challenging work on this difficult topic will stimulate fruitful conversations and fresh thinking, whether in private study or prayer; in classrooms, churches, and reading groups; or among friends and family around the dinner tale.

Interweaving biblical insights and personal narratives, this eloquently written book shows how God often uses suffering and desert experiences to form us into Christ's image. Marlena Graves shares her experiences of growing up poor in a house plagued by mental illness as a means to explore the forces God uses to shape us into beautiful people in the midst of brokenness. This book offers a window into suffering through the motif of desert spirituality, revealing how God can use our painful experiences to show himself faithful. While no one welcomes suffering, God often uses desert experiences--those we initially despise and wouldn't wish on anyone--to transform us into beautiful souls who better resemble Jesus. Graves shows how God can bring life out of circumstances reeking of death and destruction, whether those circumstances are crises or daily doses of quiet desperation. Readers who have experienced suffering and question God's purpose for it will benefit from this book, as will counselors, pastors, professors, and mentors. It includes a foreword by John Ortberg and Laura Ortberg Turner.

New York Times bestseller How do you hold on to hope when you don’t get the ending you asked for? When Katie Davis Majors moved to Uganda, accidentally founded a booming organization, and later became the mother of thirteen girls through the miracle of adoption, she determined to weave her life together with the people she desired to serve. But joy often gave way to sorrow as she invested her heart fully in walking alongside people in the grip of poverty, addiction, desperation, and disease. After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? When she turned to Him with her questions, God spoke truth to her heart and drew her even deeper into relationship with Him. Daring to Hope is an invitation to cling to the God of the impossible—the God who whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers are not answered the way we want or the miracle doesn’t come. It’s about a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes to be ordinary. It’s about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about encountering God’s goodness in the least expected places. Though your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find your own questions echoed in these pages. You’ll be reminded of the gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow. And you’ll hear God’s whisper: Hold on to hope. I will meet you here.

Bible scholar Christian Brady, an expert on Old Testament lament, was as prepared as a person could be for the death of a child—which is to say, not nearly well enough. When his eight-year-old son died suddenly from a fast-moving blood infection, Brady heard the typical platitudes about accepting God's will and knew that quiet acceptance was not the only godly way to grieve. With deep faith, knowledge of Scripture, and the wisdom that comes only from experience, Brady guides readers grieving losses and setbacks of all kinds in voicing their lament to God, reflecting on the nature of human existence, and persevering in hope. Brady finds that rather than an image of God managing every event and action in our lives, the biblical account describes the very real world in which we all live, a world full of hardship and calamity that often comes unbidden and unmerited. Yet, it also is a world into which God lovingly intrudes to bring comfort, peace, and grace.

Hope for the Flowers: A must read during this time of the corona virus and civil unrest in 2020. Caterpillars, Butterflies, Life & a real Hope Revolution THE WORLD HAS BEEN COCOONING; LET US EMERGE WITH HOPE. We have all lived through months of strange relationships with ourselves and the world around us. Virtual gatherings have become the norm, while the pain, uncertainty and injustice goes on. What will our new normal possibly become? What new work? How can we do our part to heal the world from whatever limited space we have? How can our United States truly be one nation under God with liberty and JUSTICE FOR ALL? “What might I do to help others during this global crisis? Is likely still your question as well as still mine. I will continue to offer my e-book for $2.99 with my hope that it can strengthen hope and courage in each of you and your children. We will need all we can get! If inspired, please join our Facebook group - Hope (For the Flowers) Revolution. Maybe we can inspire each other to build the better world that's possible. My hope for us is that, like our caterpillar heroes, Stripe and Yellow, we transform in the darkness of the cocoon to something new and totally unexpected. May we each find a way to use this time of darkness to light the way to justice and peace in the world. May we discover our own new beauty as we discover the beauty in our differences. May we each discover our purpose and live with passion this thing called life, while we still can. “How does one become a butterfly” Yellow asks pensively. “You must want to fly so much That you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” I can't think of anything more transformational and radical than the change that happens when a lowly caterpillar worm becomes a flying beautiful butterfly. And it doesn't end with flying! They find their true purpose, to carry the pollen of love from one flower to another and receive in return the sweet nectar that keeps them alive. What wondrous exchange! Sharing is the answer to so much! I'm so grateful the story seems to reach every culture, and over 3 million have loved and shared the paper version in English and countless more in other languages for 50 years. May each of us and the world flourish after this strange dark cocoon of isolation.

In Hope Sings, So Beautiful, award-winning author Christopher Pramuk offers a mosaic of images and sketches for thinking and praying through difficult questions about race. The reader will encounter the perspectives of artists, poets, and theologians from many different ethnic and racial communities. This richly illustrated book is not primarily sociological or ethnographic in approach. Rather, its horizon is shaped by questions of theology, spirituality, and pastoral practice. Pramuk's challenging work on this difficult topic will stimulate fruitful conversations and fresh thinking, whether in private study or prayer; in classrooms, churches, and reading groups; or among friends and family around the dinner tale.