Reluctant Journey

Where do you turn when pain doesnt diminish, and turns into a constant companion? What does it look like to lean on the Lord for strength when every day is a struggle? In A Reluctant Journey, Kristen Grathwol shares her past and present battles with the chronic pain of fibromyalgia. Weaving personal experience with reflections on Scripture, A Reluctant Journey shows how the cycle of chronic pain can lead to a spiritual cycle of trust and praise. In journal entries that lay bare the doubts and difficulties of chronic pain, along with the joy that comes from surrendering to the One who knows our deepest hurt, A Reluctant Journey explores five facets of this theme: trusting God, surrendering control, praising God in the midst of suffering, learning how to rest and grieve, and seeking community. When we trust God, we are freed from our desire to control, even to the point of embracing our trials. Even when God chooses not to change our circumstances, surrender brings joy and moves us to praise Him for His goodness and His plan in our lives. Yet God also knows our grief and wants us to bring Him our sorrows as well. Seeking God rescues us from the isolating power of pain and restores us to community. Starting this cycle is not a once-and-for-all decision, but a daily choice. An encouragement to those struggling with long-term trials, A Reluctant Journey offers a scriptural message of hope and healing for pain both physical and emotional.

Imagine the God of the universe whispering in your ear, “What shall we create out of your life that will serve My purpose?” The path of authenticity is not a solo endeavor but a calling to a partnership with God that requires utter honesty, trust, commitment, and wisdom. God guides your path with a two-fold promise, “You know I love you as you are, but together, we can make of your life what I created you to be.” Following the petitions of our Lord’s Prayer, Dr. Richard Parrott examines a family of authentic partners, the family of Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac, grandson Jacob, and great-grandson Joseph. This fresh telling of the story reveals practical answers to the question, “How can my partnership with God be genuine, mature, and significant?” The Reluctant Journey is an honest and practical guide for relating to God. As authentic Christians, we can live true in Christ and our love for him each day, choosing His best for us so that together, we advance His kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” Features include: Truths from the Lord’s Prayer Stories of the founders of our faith Thought-provoking questions for spiritual conversation or reflection

Family man David Connors is standing on the brink of suicide. Burdened by a fractured marriage and a life disconnected from God and family, he makes a surprising find--an old carpetbag buried under a snowy ledge. As he begins to experience seemingly chance encounters, he discovers the miraculous power of forgiveness.

Beginning in the mid–1940s, the bleak, brooding mood of film noir began seeping into that most optimistic of film genres, the western. Story lines took on a darker tone and western films adopted classic noir elements of moral ambiguity, complex anti-heroes and explicit violence. The noir western helped set the standard for the darker science fiction, action and superhero films of today, as well as for acclaimed TV series such as HBO’s Deadwood and AMC’s Breaking Bad. This book covers the stylistic shift in westerns in mid–20th century Hollywood, offering close readings of the first noir westerns, along with revealing portraits of the eccentric and talented directors who brought the films to life.

A pilgrim spirituality for Holy Land travel, Jerusalem Bound resources the Christian traveler with biblical, historical, and contemporary images of the pilgrim life. Integrating historical sources, on-the-ground experience, and the voices of global pilgrims, Jerusalem Bound presents a fresh approach to pilgrimage, explores pilgrim identity and the Holy Land experience, offers ideas for Holy Land travel, and encourages pilgrims to focus upon the Other as much as themselves. Unique among Holy Land resources, Jerusalem Bound discusses material that is seldom addressed on a Holy Land journey: the motives of Holy Land pilgrims, the history of the Christian Holy Land, understanding the holy sites, pilgrim practices, material objects, and the challenges of Holy Land pilgrimage. Emphasizing the incarnational nature of lived experience, the book encourages pilgrims to derive meaning in both the highs and lows of religious travel. Attentive to the transformational nature of pilgrimage, Jerusalem Bound is ultimately interested in Christian formation and the aftermath of the Holy Land journey.

If you have ever experienced a deep sadness over the loss of a close loved one, you will recognize the poems in The Wounds of Grief as snapshots of many of the intense emotions that you felt but perhaps were never quite able to describe in words. Instead of allowing himself to be bullied into following societys schedule to get over it and to move on, Jerry Vornholt has used his poems to warmly recall how many of the very ordinary events that he and his wife took for granted have now become some of his most precious memories. Jerry and his wife, Sharon, frequently referred to themselves as a team throughout the forty-eight years that they had the privilege to be together. Several of the poems in this book focus on his intense desire for that relationship to be continued in heaven.

'Frye was a person of uncommon gifts, and very little that came from his pen is without interest.' So writes Robert Denham in his introduction to this unique collection of twenty-two papers written by Northrop Frye during his student years. Made public only after Frye's death in 1991, all but one of the essays are published here for the first time. The majority of these papers were written for courses at Emmanuel College, the theology school of Victoria College at the University of Toronto. Essays such as 'The Concept of Sacrifice,' 'The Fertility Cults,' and 'The Jewish Background of the New Testament' reveal the links between Frye's early research in theology and the form and content of his later criticism. It is clear that even as a theology student Frye's first impulse was always that of the cultural critic. The papers on Calvin, Eliot, Chaucer, Wyndham Lewis, and on the forms of prose fiction show Frye as precociously witty, rigorous, and incisive - a gifted writer who clearly found his voice before his last undergraduate year. David Lodge wrote in the New Statesman: 'There are not many critics whose twenty-year-old book reviews one can read with pleasure and instruction, but Frye is an exception to most rules.' Northrop Frye's student essays provide pleasure and instruction through their comments on the Augustinian view of history, on beauty, truth, and goodness, on literary symbolism and tradition.