The Most Beautiful Disaster

How God makes miracles out of our mistakes – Hope Carpenter.

“I was a preacher’s wife, after all. I wasn’t allowed to have problems.” Pressures grow. Small mistakes can become big mistakes. Certain habits need to break. Some tones need to go. Unhealthy relationships need to stop. Little rebellions can’t be entertained. Values need to be valued. Have you ever thought and felt this way? This isn’t how I expected things to turn out. I don’t know if I can do this anymore. This book is about honesty- especially within the church.

Hope writes: “Thankfully, by the time my fiftieth birthday party rolled around– the first time I had actually ever worn a physical mask– I wasn’t hiding anymore….I’m no longer concerned with living for the accolades of others.”

In her book which was “birthed out of pain and all the dysfunctional places” in her life, Hope shares that “God can take the most broken, sinful person and not only heal them but equip them.”

FREEDOM COMES WHEN THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO HIDE BEHIND.

“What pain have you buried deep but is still driving your thoughts and your today? Be honest and show Jesus your shriveled hand.” Hope explains that this man did not stretch out his good hand like she probably would have done- the one that didn’t cause embarrassment and pain. She didn’t want anyone to see that she wasn’t perfect. He showed Jesus the broken parts of himself, and Jesus honored that faith with healing. (Mark 3:1-5) Maybe you can hear God saying the same thing to you. You with the issue, the problem, the disability, the illness, the weakness: Let me see it.

This book is challenging. You will walk through some dark moments of having to face change. It will help you deal with “unresolved emotional scars” that shape life “in ways you never could have imagined.” You’ll be interested to learn the ten emotional needs that are the ten ways a child learns to receive love. How well these needs were met early on, affects how we receive love as adults. You don’t have to “walk through life isolated, alone, and fearful…your brain may have changed in response to your past events (trauma), but it can also change in response to God’s Word (truth) and some real love and encouragement.” Pastor Hope explains that she broke her husband’s heart, shattered their family, and ruined certain opportunities with people who looked up to her. But God didn’t leave her there…because He wasn’t finished. Hope gives hope– the thing we need the most every day, especially when living with a hardship or a reality that has caused someone loss or pain for the ones we love. She believes that the way to overcome the lies you’ve believed is to take every lie and replace it with the truth. It is possible to “reverse the physical, chemical, and emotional damage that has been done to your brain structure because of all these lies.” She’s had to do that for many years as her husband – Pastor Ron Carpenter and herself, pastor multiple church sites of Redemption Church. They have gotten through one of the toughest challenges a marriage could ever face. If you’ve been through anything similar to brokenness, the steps she gives to building trust back, is essential. In getting Hope’s book, you will be saying yes to healing, forgiveness, and freedom. I recommend this book because we cannot get out of deep trauma by ourselves!

* This book review is given on behalf of Faith Words and Hachette book group of First Word Writers in which I am apart of and have the privilege to learn from great works of wisdom by incredible authors.

“I had to reckon with what I was willing to give-up and what I was willing to change to pursue wholeness.”

“God delights in making beauty from brokenness.”