Made Well

Jenny Simmons

Description

Finding Wholeness through Tears, Joys, and the EverydayFrom the woman fighting cancer to the man who has lost his child to the girl sinking into depression, so many of us are engaged in daily battles as we long for healing. When he walked the earth, Jesus said to an unwell man, "Do you want to be made well?" His invitation stretched beyond physical healing--he sought to restore the soul. The same invitation stands for us today. For anyone struggling on the journey toward wholeness, singer/songwriter Jenny Simmons offers a resting place and a friend along the way. With personal insight into emotional pain, she invites readers to encounter a God who is working out their restoration--often in surprising "half-baked" ways. Her humorous and inspirational prose lights a path toward wholeness. Anyone trying to find their way to spiritual, mental, and emotional healing will benefit from Jenny's vulnerable and compassionate stories of being made well in the midst of a messy life.

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 04 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493405459
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2016 by Jenny Simmons
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0545-9
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Some names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
Endorsements
“Healing is a long, hard road. I am grateful for Jenny’s writing that acknowledges this truth while also being steeped in the nearness of Jesus. Life-giving hope whispers from these pages.”
from the foreword by Margaret Feinberg , author of Fight Back with Joy
“Jenny Simmons’s Made Well simply gushes grace. Alternately heartbreaking, funny, raw—but most of all unbearably human. I can’t recall reading a more authentic book on spirituality. Simmons’s ease in her own skin and command of her craft combine to make a book that is as substantive as it is tender. Real-life, hard-edged truth crackles on every page. Made Well is a work of tremendous soul, a book that, like its author, sings. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
Jonathan Martin , author of How to Survive a Shipwreck and Prototype
“Carrying her words as only a poet would, Jenny Simmons stands at the mic in her emotional skivvies and sings the miracle of belief, where if we dare to wake up, we’ll see God’s love and power have never been clearer. Made Well offers the courage to lean into the ordinary—friendship, therapy, laundry, tacos—and see it as wholly belonging to our Father. Often the sea is parted through the daily crumbs of a life spent longing. Emmanuel finds us here, in yesterday’s yoga pants with pancake batter in our hair, and, as Jenny says, ‘transforms the holes.’ This book is a necessary reminder that there is no such thing as ordinary healing.”
Shannan Martin , author of Falling Free
“What happens when the pain gets worse, the days get harder, and healing doesn’t come the way we expected? Oftentimes faith is reduced to a try-harder and do-more mantra we chant when the world seems dark or painful or so full of death and brokenness that we can’t imagine hope would survive. This book is for those of us who feel a little too broken, a little too messy, a little too unwell. Sometimes in the disappointments, the questions, the crushing ache, we find God was there with us all along. Jenny Simmons’s redemptive story offers a simple invitation to look at wholeness and healing as something that is intrinsically linked to the sacred ordinary, a work God is already doing in the places we least expect it.”
Alia Joy , (in)courage writer
“I’m a champion for helping people find a redemptive purpose in their pain and for helping them take ownership of the broken things within us and around us. Jenny’s authentic words will amplify hope that being made well is possible—in more ways than you might have realized—and it’s happening all around you every day. You can find wholeness in the ordinary sacred moments, if you will take time to notice. This book will show you the way and remind you of God’s abiding love.”
Mike Foster , author, pastor, and founder of People of the Second Chance
“When I was growing up and I skinned my knee, my mom would kiss it and put a Band-Aid on it. Unfortunately, this is the same approach I continued to use every time I would get wounded in life. What Jenny has done in Made Well is not shame the reader into acknowledging that healing takes more than a kiss and a Band-Aid, but she has guided the reader into a safe space where healing can actually happen. This book is a gift to those in need of healing.”
Carlos Whittaker , author, speaker, and entrepreneur
“Two things about Made Well deeply resonate with me: vulnerability and hope. Jenny Simmons writes with disarming honesty about the path toward healing in the midst of suffering. We often pray for God to fix our broken situations and heal our bodies, but what happens when those prayers aren’t answered in the ways we thought they would be? This book explores the surprising and unexpected ways God faithfully meets us in our brokenness and leads us toward wholeness. Laced with humorous confession and abounding grace, this story looks a lot like hope. If you need a companion on the road to being made well, start here. This book is a balm for the weary.”
Rev. Eugene Cho , pastor, humanitarian, and author of Overrated
“The first time I met Jenny Simmons I was drawn to her honesty and self-awareness. In a world where so many of us struggle to put ourselves out there, Jenny is a breath of fresh air. She’s not afraid to share the hard parts of her life and her journey of healing. For anyone who hasn’t experienced an overnight miracle, this book is for you. Being made well doesn’t come without a cost, but these brave stories will breathe hope into your journey and inspire you to keep pressing forward.”
Lindsey Nobles , COO and chief strategist of IF:Gathering
“Jenny is my kindred spirit. The type of kindred spirit who keeps you close to the truth of who God is whether you’re in the depths of inconsolable grief or basking in a glorious victory. In her book Made Well: Finding Wholeness in the Everyday Sacred Moments , she will become your kindred too. Through her honesty and relentless pursuit of healing, Jenny will challenge and inspire you to find freedom through a soul made well.”
Trisha Davis , cofounder of RefineUs Ministries and Hope City Church and coauthor of Beyond Ordinary
Dedication
This book is for my brave sister Sarah. And Karissa, Stephanie, Karen, Jill, and Amanda. And for every person who daily fights to be made well. You have faced devastating trauma, impossible odds, and unspeakable evil, but you keep fighting for healing. Yours is holy work. Thank you for teaching us what it looks like to be made well.
And for Maggie and Ellen, whose laughter I never knew. You taught me most about being made well.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Endorsements 5
Dedication 7
Foreword by Margaret Feinberg 11
In the Beginning 13
1. Blackbird 15
2. Half-Baked Miracles 25
3. Beloved 34
4. Holey, Holey, Holey 41
5. Invitations 50
6. Psychiatrist, Therapist, Pills—Oh My! 61
7. Healing Hurts 73
8. Slow Dancing 84
Interlude—Sparrows 94
9. Living with Limps 99
10. In the Closet 110
11. Emmanuel 118
12. Soul Nurses 127
13. Kisses and Confession 138
14. Jump off the Train 147
15. Sacred Pauses 152
16. Receiving Gifts 164
17. Miracle after Miracle 174
In the End 183
Many Thanks 191
Notes 193
About the Author 197
Books by Jenny Simmons 199
Back Ads 201
Back Cover 205
Foreword
We walk among the fellowship of the afflicted now. Like the tearing of bread at communion, you can put two halves back together again, but life will never be the same.
We speak a different language regarding pain and loss that those who haven’t experienced deep suffering don’t always understand. You must be plunged in horror. A barren desert we would never choose. Wild beasts we’d only dream of facing in our worst nightmares. But if Christ is at the center, a new life will be poured out. In God’s kingdom, weak is the new strong, poor is the new rich, broken is the new whole.
I wrote these words to my friend Jenny Simmons while fighting the hardest battle of my life. She was on the heels of deep grief as well, having buried multiple members of her family in a few months.
We were both thrust into horrendous, life-altering journeys and had to decide whether we would fight back with joy or give up hope in the midst of unending pain. Through grace, we both found God’s merciful providence in the recesses of our suffering. Evidence of God’s presence leaked everywhere.
Divine timing remains a mystery. A gift. Sometimes it feels like a double-edged sword. The horror and heartbreak. The healing and wholeness. Tears and joy commingle in the most mysterious ways. Jenny knows these paradoxes well and does what every good storyteller does best: she gives us permission to lean into both.
Through this collection of vulnerable and hopeful stories, she teaches us that wholeness waits along rugged roads we never thought we would travel. Speaking to those walking through dark seasons of pain, Jenny offers a healing balm that isn’t found by traipsing the world but in the simplicity of sacred moments among ordinary lives.
Healing is a long, hard road. I am grateful for Jenny’s writing that acknowledges this truth while also being steeped in the nearness of Jesus. Life-giving hope whispers from these pages.
The humorous and poetic words of this book invite you to make the journey of healing with a host of friends by your side: Christian therapists, psychiatrists, pastors, nurses, friends, spouses, churches, hiking trails, nature, food, family, and God.
The march of the afflicted is long. Bu