Radiant Midnight

Melissa Maimone

Description

Grace and Hope for Long Dark Nights Have you ever suffered with depression, sadness, or the feeling that you just cant seem to get it together? Do you wonder if you could ever view your deepest wounds in a different light? Through candid storytelling, biblical truth, honest lament, and unexpected humor, The Radiant Midnight is a bold refusal to simplify the experience of suffering by moving too quickly to try to relieve it. With questions to guide you and practical suggestions to lead you through dark moments, this book takes you on a journey of surrender, suffering, rest, and restoration as it encourages and comforts you in whatever struggle you face. The message of The Radiant Midnight is fueled by the passionate belief that not only will God lead youout of darkness, He will be fully and beautifully present within it. You can find deep contentment in painful circumstances and discover a profound intimacy with a compassionate, tender God who is with you in every momentin each hope-filled dawn and every radiant midnight.

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 02 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736976480
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

ENDORSEMENTS
Melissa offers herself as a fearless tour guide into the unknown and gives us this compassionate book about her own journey into the dark to serve as handrails for those of us who find ourselves, willingly or not, descending into the underworlds of depression, pain, anxiety, and beyond to find the riches they hide.
Jason Gray, singer and songwriter
Melissa s voice and story bear witness to the reality that the Christian narrative doesn t always follow the path of celebration and triumph. For those of us whose lives are a testament to darkness, suffering and survival, we too need to be reminded that our stories also belong to those of the family of God. The Radiant Midnight does this beautifully and honestly, offering compassionate and challenging insights along the way.
David C. Wang, ThM, PhD, associate professor of psychology, Biola University; pastor of spiritual formation, One Life City Church
As a woman who has experienced a good bit of her life in the midnight hours, I m grateful for another voice that tenderly and candidly calls attention to a subject many Christians have ignored. Melissa doesn t just set the subject in front of you-she digs deep and encourages you to push harder against the darkness than you may have ever dared to do.
Angie Smith, bestselling author of Seamless, Chasing God , and What Women Fear
I so appreciate Melissa Maimone s honesty and unique perspective on battling depression and anxiety. She skillfully weaves King David s life and words with her own, giving the reader space to battle fear, worry, and heavy sadness-yet with hope. If you re facing your own midnight, find solace and light in these hard-won words.
Mary DeMuth, author of Healing Every Day
Radiant midnight is an oxymoron-a combination of two contradictory terms that invite a curious mind to explore the wisdom that might hold them together. In this way, radiant midnight now establishes its place in a lexicon that has illuminated other impossible truths like sweet sorrow, wounded healer, or terrible goodness. Through her achingly personal journey, Melissa sets the night on fire with the radiance of unrelenting love, revealing what we can never see or feel when we are in the dark-God is already there.
Nicole Johnson, author of Creating Calm in the Center of Crazy and Fresh Brewed Life ; founder of Seasons Weekends
Melissa doesn t hand out Band-Aids or tidy answers. Rather, she invites us to listen for the story of redemption that God is writing for each of us, even as we wait for the light.
Jen Wise, author of The Bright Life
Melissa s attempt to put her experience into words is both a gift and treasure for any reader. Her vulnerability reveals a bold, courageous woman whose aim is to ensure that you, the reader, do not have to walk your journey alone.
Andrea Tomassi, author of Live Bold
Like a good therapist, Melissa sits with you in your pain and teaches you how to sit with your own darkness. This book speaks to anyone who struggles with any type of darkness in their life-and that would be all of us! She so accurately and vulnerably portrays the shame of the shadow that most of us feel but can never put into words. But instead of condemnation, Melissa gives a wonderful combination of humor, heart, and hope in the darkest times.
Dr. Zoe Shaw, host of The Dr. Zoe Show podcast
If you are suffering, this book is a safe space. Melissa isn t here to fix you or your feelings. Rather, she masterfully weaves Scripture, personal stories, and profound insights to offer you eternal hope that is both raw and real. As one who currently sits in the long, dark days of a midnight season, The Radiant Midnight stirred my resolve to learn to sit and learn God s lessons rather than try to speed through the pain.
Barb Roose, author of Winning the Worry Battle
Melissa s vulnerability, humor, and depth make her one of our favorite voices to hear on some of life s harder topics. Her story and wisdom have helped illuminate the treasure to be found in our own dark places.
Katherine and Jay Wolf, coauthors and cofounders of Hope Heals
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE , OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Verses marked NCV are taken from the New Century Version . Copyright 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NLT are taken 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.
Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Faceout Studio
Cover photos Ana Babii, OLaLa Merkel / Shutterstock
The Radiant Midnight
Copyright 2019 by Melissa Maimone
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7647-3 (Trade)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7648-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
DEDICATION
To those longing for the light to return.
You are not alone in the darkness.
CONTENTS
Endorsements
Dedication
Foreword by Curt Thompson
Introduction
1. Welcome to Midnight
2. Surrender and Salsa
3. No Thing Left
4. Long Starry Nights
5. The Silent God
6. Garbo, Loneliness, and the Unwavering Gaze of Grace
7. Poking Holes in the Darkness
8. Fear Not
9. Waiting for the Sun to Rise
10. Welcome to Daylight
Resources
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Publisher
FOREWORD
C URT T HOMPSON , MD
T he first time I heard Melissa Maimone speak publicly about her story of affliction, I was immediately captivated. She spoke with authority-as one who authors . As one who was offering something that was emerging from the center of her soul, not something she had read about on the Internet. She spoke not as one who was talking from a distance about some thing , but rather as one bearing faithful witness to her journey-true to its complete nature of joy and heartache, beauty and anguish, light and darkness. She told of her experience of depression not as something apart from herself, but rather as an integral element of her life-threads that God was patiently weaving into a tapestry of such elegance and refinement that one could not help but be drawn into it. At its deepest level, her story was my own. I am confident that in The Radiant Midnight you will find your own as well.
For nearly 30 years I have practiced as a psychiatrist. My most important calling is to walk with people into places in their stories that they have not yet traveled. Their reluctance to have traversed these paths-whether consciously or not-has led them to any number of painful realities that have them on the brink. They are usually attempting to regulate states of depression, anxiety, substance (or other) addictions, broken relationships of all kinds, and any number of other emotional and behavioral maladies. At the heart of their troubles lie, among other things, their inexperience at telling their stories fully in all of their agonizing, shaming, beautiful grandeur. They have not the words to say-or the person to hear them say-that which is truest about who they are and what they are enduring.
This deeply entrenched reality-our inability to tell the truth about who we are-is as old as humanity. In our present day, this has led to an avalanche of mental health needs as the increase in rates of depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide show no signs of relenting.
As a neuroscientist who speaks frequently about research discoveries relating to the interplay between the brain and relationships, you would think I would be the supreme optimist. And indeed, I am grateful for and hopeful about what we are learning about rewiring our minds. But it is not enough for us to have more new information in the information age. Rather, we need embodied evidence that our lives can change, that our minds can be renewed, and that joy can be known-not just as a result of but even in the face of darkness . We don t just need better stories; we need truer stories. Stories that tell of a God who meets us in order to save us and extend the boundaries of our imaginations beyond the horizons we can see. I mostly want a God who will transform my darkness while leaving me alone and not asking me to change that much. But it turns out that far more often what I need -and what I get-is a God who transforms me through that darkness. Unfortunately, we suffer from