Celebrate / Struggle: An Unexpected Encounter with Peace and Joy

CELEBRATE / STRUGGLE

An Unexpected Encounter with Peace and Joy
Spiritual Experience Collection / Letters to the Church Series

Life has meaning only in the struggle.
Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the gods.
So let us celebrate the struggle.

~ Swahili Warrior Song

The quote leapt from the screen and turned cartwheels inside my head. Celebrate struggle? That just didn’t make any sense. What’s to be thankful for in losing the battle? Or in getting sidetracked on life’s journey, for that matter? Why celebrate the harbinger of pain and tragedy and destruction? And what possible purpose could there be in cheering my way through difficult days?

For weeks, even months, later this foreign concept of celebrating struggle bounced around in my head, creating a sort of “crisis of mind.” It was as if every fiber of my being were shouting, “Yes! Yes!” even as I attempted to push the idea aside. I resisted at first, but the more I considered those two words, “celebrate” and “struggle,” and spoke them aloud together, the more certain I became that there was something of great value here, something that warranted further consideration. And so the seeds for this book were planted.

CONTENTS

• Prologue 
  
• Introduction: A Time of Struggle 
  
• Chapter One: Looking to God 
  
• Chapter Two: Wrestling with God 
  
• Chapter Three: But God Intended It for Good 
  
• Chapter Four: Welcoming the Struggle 
  
• Chapter Five: The Opportunity of Struggle 
  
• Chapter Six: Blanket of Grace 
  
• Chapter Seven: Yet Not My Will 
  
• Chapter Eight: A Song of Struggle 
  
• Chapter Nine: Laying Our Burdens Down 
  
• Epilogue
  

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