When Despair Meets Delight

When Despair Meets Delight: Stories to cultivate hope for those battling mental illness is both a memoir and a model for doing mental health ministry. By sharing his own story, Tony Roberts offers the hope he has found in Christ as one battling a mental illness.

When Despair Meets Delight: Stories to cultivate hope for those battling mental illness. It is a both a memoir and a model for doing mental health ministry. By sharing his own story, Tony Roberts hopes to share the hope of Christ with those impacted by mental illness.

"A burgeoning literature for young-adult readers exists. Yet much of it depicts a despairing, disillusioned world, telling tales of teenagers suffering from family breakdown, violence, peer pressure, sexual abuse, and even suicide. But such bleakness need not translate into depression and fear for vulnerable adolescents. When we look at YA fiction form another perspective, what may emerge is a literature of great power an authenticity. Julia Kristeva argues that so long as human beings have love, we have hope. Taking up this theme, Martha Westwater reads six YA novelists--Aidan Chambers, Robert Cormier, Kevin Major, Jan Mark, Katherine Paterson, and Patricia Wrightson--through Kristevan theory to find a glimmer of hope amidst our cultural crises. A welcome addition to the undeservedly sparse literature on Young Adult fiction."--Publisher's description.

Reflecting on the confusion, shame and grief brought on by her mother's schizophrenia, Amy Simpson provides a bracing look at the social and physical realities of mental illness. Reminding us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, she explores new possibilities for the church to minister to this stigmatized group.

**Named a Best Book of the Year by The Boston Globe, Garden & Gun, Electric Literature, and St. Louis Public Radio** The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with exactly the book we need in these unsettling times. Margaret Roach of The New York Times says, “Yes, please. I'll have another dose of delight.” In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.

A series of letters from father to daughter, this elegant book is a writer's roadmap, passed down from one who has seen the climb ahead and sends back missives of encouragement, wisdom, caution, and love to any who follow. But more than a memoir of the craft itself, the book is a cartography of life itself and how to live it well, no matter your calling.

Originally published in 1935, Gold by Moonlight was not written by the well for the ill, but by one who knows the sensitive lessons that come from a walk with pain. This book is for all who are walking in the difficult places of life. It is a literary signpost pointing toward the peace and comfort that only comes from the Lord. A spiritually rich book, full of courage for anyone who suffers. “Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the adversities of life? Then this encouraging and comforting book is just for you. Written by Amy Carmichael who has known pain and suffering herself and has an amazing capacity to guide a weary soul back into God’s presence.”—Prayer Tray Illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs.