When Faith Learns to Lament (Paperback)
Language: English
Published by Mltd Janse Van Rensburg Publishing, 2026
Series: Book 2 of 3 - Written for Lynn
- Softcover
- New
Seller: CitiRetail, Stevenage, United KingdomCitiRetail
AbeBooks seller since June 29, 2022
Condition: New
£ 20.49
Quantity: 1 available
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Paperback. "Lament is not the opposite of faith. It is the sound faith makes when it refuses to lie."What do you do when the verses stop fitting?When the diagnosis does not change. When the prayer goes unanswered. When someone hands you everything happens for a reason and you have to walk away before you say something you cannot take back.Have you felt ashamed of being angry at God? Have you wondered whether your questions disqualify you from being counted among the faithful?They do not - and you are in older company than you think.Dr Michael Janse van Rensburg spent six years writing a doctoral thesis on how a good God can be present in a suffering world. Fifteen months after he finished it, his wife Lynn was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given weeks to live. This book was written from inside that room - not afterwards, not from a safe distance, but from within a story that has not yet resolved.This is not a book about getting over grief. It is a book for people who are not on the other side yet.Drawing on Scripture's own language of protest - the psalms of lament, Job's unanswered questions, Gethsemane, and a Saviour who wept at a grave He was about to open - When Faith Learns to Lament gives grieving Christians permission to bring God the truth instead of a performance.Inside you will find: That roughly a third of the Psalms are laments, and what the prayer book God gave His people says about the prayers you are allowed to prayPsalm 88, the prayer that never resolves, and why God kept it in the Bible anywayHoly Saturday: how to live an ordinary day inside a crisis with no end dateDisenfranchised grief, and the losses nobody brings a casserole forTelling children the truth, in doses they can carryHow to let people carry you, and a chapter to hand to anyone who wants to show up for youReflection questions, written prayers, a guide to writing your own lament, and a six-session reading group guideThis book is for anyone who is grieving. Whether what you are carrying is cancer, chronic illness, caregiving, bereavement, divorce, infertility or dementia - or whether you love someone who is carrying it and you do not know what to say - the permission in these pages is yours.You will not find five steps, a tidy ending, or a promise the author cannot keep. You will find company, honest theology, and permission to grieve without losing your faith.From the author of Where Are You, God? My Wife Has Cancer. When the verses stop fitting, what is left? A theologian caring for his dying wife turns to Psalm 88 - the one prayer in Scripture that never resolves. An honest companion for anyone grieving without answers. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…
Seller Inventory # 9781048314120
- Title
- When Faith Learns to Lament (Paperback)
- Author
- Michael Janse Van Rensburg
- Publisher
- Mltd Janse Van Rensburg Publishing
- Publication year
- 2026
- Condition
- new
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 104831412X
- ISBN 13
- 9781048314120
- Series
- Book 2 of 3: Written for Lynn
"Lament is not the opposite of faith. It is the sound faith makes when it refuses to lie."
What do you do when the verses stop fitting?
When the diagnosis does not change. When the prayer goes unanswered. When someone hands you everything happens for a reason and you have to walk away before you say something you cannot take back.
Have you felt ashamed of being angry at God? Have you wondered whether your questions disqualify you from being counted among the faithful?
They do not — and you are in older company than you think.
Dr Michael Janse van Rensburg spent six years writing a doctoral thesis on how a good God can be present in a suffering world. Fifteen months after he finished it, his wife Lynn was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given weeks to live. This book was written from inside that room — not afterwards, not from a safe distance, but from within a story that has not yet resolved.
This is not a book about getting over grief. It is a book for people who are not on the other side yet.
Drawing on Scripture's own language of protest — the psalms of lament, Job's unanswered questions, Gethsemane, and a Saviour who wept at a grave He was about to open — When Faith Learns to Lament gives grieving Christians permission to bring God the truth instead of a performance.
Inside you will find:
- That roughly a third of the Psalms are laments, and what the prayer book God gave His people says about the prayers you are allowed to pray
- Psalm 88, the prayer that never resolves, and why God kept it in the Bible anyway
- Holy Saturday: how to live an ordinary day inside a crisis with no end date
- Disenfranchised grief, and the losses nobody brings a casserole for
- Telling children the truth, in doses they can carry
- How to let people carry you, and a chapter to hand to anyone who wants to show up for you
- Reflection questions, written prayers, a guide to writing your own lament, and a six-session reading group guide
This book is for anyone who is grieving. Whether what you are carrying is cancer, chronic illness, caregiving, bereavement, divorce, infertility or dementia — or whether you love someone who is carrying it and you do not know what to say — the permission in these pages is yours.
You will not find five steps, a tidy ending, or a promise the author cannot keep. You will find company, honest theology, and permission to grieve without losing your faith.
From the author of Where Are You, God? My Wife Has Cancer.
The book carries a foreword by Pastor Jo Swart, Senior Pastor at Life Church Somerset West, who has known Michael and Lynn since they were teenagers. She came to Lynn's hospital bedside in the week the doctors gave them no hope.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
CitiRetail
Stevenage, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since June 29, 2022
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