Beautiful Battlefields – Making Sense out of Suffering
Every now and then, a book comes along that sweeps you off your feet. Beautiful Battlefields by gifted communicator Bo Stern is one of those. Exquisitely written, it helps you make sense out of the suffering that you’re travelling through. Powerful. Poignant. This year’s must-read.
Everything was going along perfectly for Bo Stern, until the day her husband was diagnosed with motor-neuron disease. And in an instant, she found herself out on a battlefield.
The central thesis, the “big idea” if you will, of the book is this:
Can you turn that idea around in your mind for a bit and let its size and scope seep in? God is for us. He is for our growth, our joy, our success, and our maturity, and He will use every struggle we face as the delivery agents for His most remarkable gifts. Our beautiful God has hidden beauty in the soil of our battlefield. He has placed treasure there that we simply would not be able to find in other, more peaceful places. Before we faced this fight, I knew this in theory, but I hadn’t experienced a fire hot enough to prove and refine it. Now I can say with great confidence, I own it. On good days and on bad, in war and in peace, in sickness and in health, I know in the deepest part of my heart that He is the God who brings beauty from battle.
The power of this book lies in the fact that Bo is writing it from her vantage point in the midst of a terrible battle. No glib platitudes or shallow theories. Just a real, gritty, Spirit breathed understanding that can only come from out there on the battlefield.
She grapples with issues and shares insights that will warm your heart, strengthen your soul and fill you with hope.
This book is for anyone who needs to make some sense out of their suffering.
Available from Amazon in hard copy or as a Kindle eBook.
Don’t you just love those well meaning folk who put their arm around your shoulder and say “don’t worry – all things work together for good etc”. What a trite statement and yet we find it in God’s word – is it true or not? As I visit my third son in gaol and try to talk to a mind destroyed by drugs or stand beside my eldest boy’s coffin giving a eulogy because of a car accident in 2011, it doesn’t seem that all things work together for good and I really struggle. But God, in His incredible grace, helps me to understand, and leads me to another verse written by Paul in the same chapter – I read Rom 8:18 ‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’. Are you kidding? I can think of some extremely bad sufferings – much worse than those I have been through and are going through – and they are not even worth COMPARING to the GLORY to come?? How incredible must that glory be? I can’t get my little finite mind around that. But now I understand – ALL things DO work together for good, ultimately!! (So make sure you are called according to His purpose!!)
Berni, just yesterday I was listening to Radio National and the biographer of Joe Kennedy, David Nasaw. One stark contrast made by David was between Joe and Rose Kennedy. She was an extremely Faith driven Roman Catholic and was through the Grace of that Faith able to be sustained through being pre-deceased by her three sons (two assassinated) and a daughter. The biographer was amazed by her composure. Perhaps she too was able to see God with her in all her circumstances – both good and bad? Will definitely buy Bo’s book.