In her latest release, Sarah Bessey writes beautifully about the holy space between pain and healing — and what happens when things don't go as planned. After a car accident changes everything, she must relearn who God is all over again and how to recognize him in the places she hadn't before.

Whether it's a missive from her monthly Field Notes newsletter or from between the pages of one of her well-worn books, reading Sarah's words is like sitting over cups of tea with a dear friend. She's at once both wise and tender, fierce and soft. When I first read something by Sarah a few years ago it finally felt like there was someone else out there who just got it: someone who understood what it looked like to wrestle with God and still love him deeply. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Spirit brought her into my life to shepherd me back to my faith. And I’ve never felt so grateful.

This book is no exception. I read these pages from a doctor's office a few weeks ago, waiting for an ordinary miracle of my own. Her words about inviting God into our own pain and suffering were balm to my weary heart, and again, I find myself greatful for her shepherding. With this book, Sarah has reminded me that I'm not forgotten. I'm not unseen. That God sees all of us and answers our prayers, just perhaps not in the way we expect Him to.

This book is for everyone: the doubters, the wounded, the people who long to see God in a new way, those that want to believe in miracles again but don’t have anything left in them, and even us happy-clappy Christians who want to raise our hands in the air and say YES, LORD!! I'll definitely be buying copy after copy for gifts as soon as it comes out. I hope you buy a copy for yourself, too.

Thank you to the publisher for my Advanced Reader Copy of this book! I completely devoured it, and underlined so much to return to. Memoir is my favorite genre, but add the Holy Spirit and miracles (and suffering and healing) and I am ALL IN. (Even if this book looks different than your faith, I believe you will not be sorry you read it. It is honest and real.)

Sarah Bessey stretched my brain and comforted my soul. Her narrative flows so well that the book is a fast read, and yet I lingered on so many pages rereading paragraphs in an effort to soak it all up and not allow the story to end. Her vulnerability and realness in this book is refreshing in the world of masks. Her story is powerful and is a gift to the weary!

She did it again. I've read every book of Bessey's and I love her straightforward approach. Her look at the various traditions of the church in this one was especially meaningful. I love her willingness to be completely honest and always a sister, not an authority figure.

This latest book by Sarah Bessey made me cry and filled my heart with hope, as her words usually do. I've already read it twice. The second time I listened to the audiobook and was able to highlight some things in my kindle version. I was still moved to tears over and over again. Chapter 15 and the benediction are my favorite. And the chapter on letting God Mother us. Sarah is such a good storyteller and her writing is beautiful and poetic.

Sarah reminds us at the beginning of her book, "I should probably warn you right up front that I love Jesus with my whole heart. I have zero chill on this topic. I think he’s worth following, and that can get me into trouble. I have never evolved past Jesus: I still abide in the shadow of his wing." -- I love that so much! I am right there with her!

I cried all the way through the benediction (final prayer) at the end, no surprise there... I highly recommend you read it for yourself. In fact, go read her first two books first, and then read this one.

I agree with what Shauna Niequist wrote in the forward:

"In friendship, if you want to create the kind of space between you that is strong and durable and deeply valuable, you have to be willing to go first. And part of why books matter and writing matters and storytelling matters is because the best writers go first: the best writers say the unsaid and unspoken, the secret truths we all feel but can’t quite speak aloud. And in these pages, Sarah’s willingness to go first in all sorts of ways is a sacred gift, a permission slip, a key unlocking doors long closed."

Sarah Bessey's newest book will delight those of us who have been reading her stuff since her blogging days and newcomers to her work. "Miracles" reads more like a memoir than her first two books, and Sarah uses her own story as a beautiful jumping-off point to explore the spiritual topics contained in the book.

For so many of us, everything in our lives was one way when we first met Jesus and as we walk that path over many years, things change. This theme of "unlearning and relearning God" is carried throughout the book. Using circumstances from her own life, Sarah reminds us that sometimes God shows up in our lives and it doesn't look the way it always has or the way we've always expected it to. God's loving character toward us is unchanging, even as the vantage point from which we approach God changes from day to day.

As always, Sarah's writing is stunningly beautiful in this book. I'm convinced that Sarah could write down the ole "God is great, God is good, and we thank God for our food" prayer in one of her benedictions and I would sob through the whole thing. I can't wait to get this into the hands of so many friends!

Thank you to the publisher for providing an early copy of this release for me to review.

Honestly, one of my favorite books of this year. Her writing, as usual, makes me laugh, cry, and get angry (not at her, at the church and church leaders). She always makes me think. Always renews my faith and always makes me remember why I believe the way I do and changes my beliefs. Reminds me that there is good in the world and that there are still good Christians in it when some seem hell bent on being racist sexist jerks.

Every once in awhile, if you are lucky or blessed, a person will enter your life and, quite simply, change it. Sarah Bessey did it for me with Out of Sorts and, unexpectedly did it again with Miracles and Other Reasonable Things.

I grew up in the church, the Souther Baptist church to be exact. I thought I had God all figured out. Pinned down. Boxed in. I KNEW HIM. Then, God reminded me I didn't. At all. Once I looked outside of myself and my 'learning' I realized I didn't know Him at all. That He is every changing and cannot be pinned down, boxed in. But he CAN be KNOWN. If we seek Him out.

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things is Sarah Bessey's story of unlearning and learning God again, after a terrible car accident left her in immeasurable pain and confusion. Her body was changed, perhaps forever. Her road to healing is long, and twisty, and miraculous. God moves in strange ways, as they say, and can make us whole in unexpected way. Sarah's story of faith and healing moved me in countless ways. I laughed and cried and learned and felt God throughout her story. I pray you will too.

Disclaimer: I was provided an early copy of the book by the publisher because I was desperate for any early copy. I don't know Sarah but boy do I love her!

Sarah's words are a balm for a wounded soul. She is a wonderful storyteller and the way she brings together thoughts on God, faith, miracles, struggles, life gave me a bit of hope to keep working out these things for myself as well.

I've come to realize that there is no "figuring out" faith - that this is ongoing work that will continue throughout my lifetime. I'll leave you with this quote from the Introduction of the book as a taste of what you'll find in this wonderful book, which is also a good summary of what I've just begun to understand, "We have to be committed to unlearning the unhelpful, broken, unredemptive, false, or incomplete God if we want to have space to relearn the goodness, the wholeness, the joy of a loving God."


Thank you Sarah for such a life giving book.


I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher. I'll be buying it anyway for gifting to others.

Sarah Bessey always speaks to me. Her words are so encouraging to me. In a time when people are so dug into their own camps, a book about God revealing himself in unexpected ways is perfect.

I've followed Sarah's writing for years. I've read all three of her books. And this book was just a masterpiece. It was beautiful, soulful, convicting, and yet full of light. I wanted it to go on forever. I am so glad we have Sarah's voice in the world.

Sarah writes about her car crash and the resulting struggle with physical pain, partial healing, and finding God's provision in the middle of everything. Of unlearning inaccurate views of God and learning new, seemingly contradictory views. Of accepting that God is both/and not either/or. She writes beautifully and in a way that is relatable.

Sarah Bessey’s latest book is absolutely gorgeous. She has such a big, welcoming, everyone-at-the table vision of God that inspires and fuels me. There were several issues she wrote about in this memoir that intersect with my own experiences in really important and affecting ways, and it was much like sitting with a good friend for a chat, prayer, hugs, and a good cry.

Sarah Bessey is one of my favorite writers, and I am thrilled at the chance to be part of the launch team for Miracles. This chance includes a copy of the book in both print and electronic form provided prior to the publishing date of October 8, 2019, and I am grateful to the publisher for this.

More memoir than theological discussion, Miracles falls in a different vein from Sarah's previous books, Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts. Out of Sorts is one of my favorite books, and I also enjoyed Jesus Feminist, so I was on the edge of my seat anticipating Miracles. When it finally arrived, I devoured it in two days (that pesky employment business may allow me to pay the bills, but it seriously impedes my reading time too).

Sarah opens up in a more vulnerable way than ever before in Miracles, telling the full story of the car accident that permanently changed her and her family's lives for the first time. She describes how the excruciating injuries resulting from the crash forced her to change her lifestyle, altering every part of her life from her career to how she mothers to her faith. She discusses how conflicted she felt about the healing she experienced in Rome when she was invited to meet Pope Francis--a healing that could be described as nothing short of miraculous--and also about the injuries that were not included in that healing. Her own words when describing her father's protracted recovery after surgery describe it well: "the slow walk toward wholeness that doesn't skip over the suffering."

Tied up in that experience was a new way of seeing God, she writes, and how S(h)e shows up and acts even in those places and traditions and faiths where we firmly believe (S)he isn't. (Yes, at times Sarah uses female pronouns and imagery in Miracles when referring to God and briefly discusses why. If that rocks your boat, well, buckle up and hold on to your hat. One of my favorite lines is: "Perhaps self-care is simply joining with God to care for ourselves as a mother would care for us.") Having grown up in a charismatic tradition, she was distrustful of the ritual and ornamentation of Catholicism. But as with all cliches, there is a seed of truth in the phrase "God works in mysterious ways," and God showed up in Rome for Sarah just as (S)he showed up in Canada and the US and Haiti.

Just as important is Sarah's discussion of what she terms "choosing life," a reference to the terms of the covenant God made with ancient Israel in Deuteronomy 30:15-20. She has had to not only come to terms with her body's new limitations, but come to actively love her body as it is. In her own words: "Now matter what path I walked upon, healed or unhealed, miraculous or ordinary, the words that rose in my soul that morning--choose life--whispered that I may not have chosen this particular path, but I could, while walking it, choose to move toward life. I could choose to open myself to the possibilities of joy in it. I could choose to love and become reacquainted with my new body. I could be born again, all over again."

This choice is not one she can decide on once and then she's good to go forever after. She must actively choose it and live it out every day, the "daily hard work of incremental healing." This leads to a meditation on the difference between self-comfort and self-care (see above quote on God as mother). She writes, "I had a natural bent toward indulging in self-comfort; what I needed now in this season of my life was radical self-care. Self-comfort numbs us, weakens us, hides us; it can be a soporific. But self-care awakens us, strengthens us, and emboldens us to rise." For Sarah, self-care means going to her doctor's appointments and therapy and taking medications. It means exercising gently and making changes to her expectations for herself and adjusting her work schedule accordingly. It means changing her "crippling belief that God loves me more when I'm working hard," a belief that is all too common.

It means asking, "How would God like to mother me today? If God was a strong, patient, wise, kind, no-nonsense, deeply loving mother, what would She want for me today?...Sometimes the answer has been simply: Take a nap, child, I've got you."

There is much to chew on in Miracles, and these are only a few of the gems to be found. Thank you to Sarah for opening up and providing this glimpse into your experiences. Even as painful as they have been, we are richer for them.

"I'm not precious and beatific about this: suffering can be a sacrament not because it's refining on its own--suffering can also make us bitter and twisted and angry--but because it can become the sort of darkness that makes the light much more beautiful."

#ReasonableMiracles

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2760852231?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I love Sarah Bessey. Her book Jesus Feminist was my gateway book out of fundamentalism/a culty church environment. I have been looking forward to this book since I first heard about it. I am grateful to the publisher for providing me with a free advance copy in return for an honest review.

This book cracked me open and met me in a very deep and tender place. I had to restrain myself from reading it in one sitting. I read only 1-2 chapters at a time, savoring each one. This book was exactly what I needed. It’s the book I’ve been looking for that didn’t exist before now. I needed to hear someone I trust – whose writing I know and love, and who I respect – speak honestly about adjusting to life in a body with chronic pain, and how the very physical, practical reality of life with chronic pain and chronic illness affects all of life, including faith. She put so many of my fears into words on a page, and I somehow felt known, seen, and – perhaps most importantly – not alone. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

When we have suffered, when we have been bruised and scarred, when our light has been blown out, when we are ground beneath someone else’s heel, I hope to remember we belong to a God who is faithful to restore us. We aren’t invisible to Jesus or embarrassing to Jesus, nor are we unwelcome.
In fact, Scripture tells us over and over that our very brokenness – our hurt, our oppression, our poverty, our sickness, our grief – makes us dear to Jesus. He is moved by compassion for us. His love never ends. His care for us is relentless. He vindicates, he brings justice, he brings healing, he inaugurates the right way of seeing creation and created and Creator. (Kindle location 2109)

I almost hesitate to share that quote because, while it is still beautiful and touching reading it apart from the previous 12 chapters of the book, those previous 12 chapters give it power. It means more coming from Sarah because she GETS it. She lives it.

Another favorite:

Miracles are unsafe, not because they are unnatural but because they are often a restoration. (Kindle location 2337)

Once upon a time, I thought Jesus liked the productive ones the best. But then I learned how incredibly precious it is to walk with Jesus in the shadows and the grief and the pain and the loss, to learn the comfort of the Man of Sorrows, the mending of God in the midst of our brokenness, and what it really means to be caught up in power, power, wonder-working power. (Kindle location 2403)

Sarah is an amazing writer. The story she shares in this book is powerful, and the way she writes it makes it breathtakingly beautiful and a complete and utter delight to read. I honestly can’t even put into words how much I love this book. When my pre-ordered hard copy comes, I’m going to re-read it, highlighter in hand. I’m planning to gather a group of women with chronic pain and/or illness to read it together, because it is food for the soul. This book is, in my opinion, an absolute must-read.


Posted on Goodreads:
I was given an advance copy of this book by the publisher, but I had already pre-ordered it.

This book is amazing. It is beautiful beyond words - Sarah is a gifted writer, and her way with words takes this story to a breathtaking level. As someone who has chronic pain and has a chronic illness, she put into words fears and feelings I've never been able to verbalize. She addresses how chronic pain and illness touches us on a spiritual level, and it is achingly beautiful. I cried multiple times reading this - sometimes because I felt seen or known - someone GOT it, and sometimes because of the beauty of the Jesus and faith she presents. This is absolutely the book I have needed and have been looking for, for months now. It didn't exist. But now it does. It is a tremendous gift. I will be re-reading many times, I know that for sure. I will be gifting it to many people. If you love Jesus, if you love memoirs, if you have (or are close with someone who has) chronic pain or illness, if your faith has shifted/deconstructed - if any of those fit your life, read this book. It is a thing of beauty and grace, and I'm grateful beyond words that Sarah wrote it.