Last year, I started reading through the Old Testament book of Ezekiel with a friend. Initially, I dreaded the project, my only other exposure to the eccentric prophet having been my annual flyovers, gulping down three or four chapters at a time in a hurry to get to the end.
This slow read has been a lesson in God’s relentless love and purposeful vision for his people. Even as he pours out judgment in the form of exile, his stated purpose in all of it is clear: “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 29:21 is just one of the many places the phrase occurs!) With that as a compassionate endgame, God forgives their waywardness and offers hope for a better future.
In Christ, the gospel has secured the gifts of forgiveness and hope for us as well, and God is extending the same lavish grace to his church as we chase squirrels and argue about politics. History does not portray the church in a very flattering light, and yet God perseveres in love. Even after everything we’ve done that could have undermined his confidence in us as a body (or as individual sinners!), God takes the risk. Even after everything!
Conversely, we’re quick to give up on God when he acts in ways that surprise or disappoint us.
We give up on each other over the strangest things.
We’ve even been known to give up on ourselves.
History does not portray the church in a very flattering light, and yet God perseveres in love. Even after everything we’ve done to undermine his confidence in us as a body (or as individual sinners!), God takes the risk.
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The Spiritual Practice of Knowing the Risks and Loving Anyway
Stephanie Duncan Smith experienced loss like gravel in the teeth when, after a decade of childlessness, her first pregnancy miscarried. Looking for stability in the midst of deep grief, she gripped the solid handholds of the liturgical calendar and held on.
Even After Everything is her memoir, recounting the beautiful interconnections between her own seasons of pain and the seasons of the church’s year. It tells a story of dissonance and paradox, for love is never without risk in our fallen world and new beginnings have come about, most likely, because something else has ended.
Duncan Smith has come to understand the human life span as an “okay for now” experience with no promise of exemption from the world’s woes. What we are offered instead has to do with another world all together, but in the meantime, we are not abandoned. God accompanies us through every season. “The promise has never been smooth nor safe passage. The divine promise is presence.”
Readers looking for a strong center of gravity and hearts that have experienced loss will find comfort and empathy in the author’s candid retelling of her own story. Even better, they will find reassurance that trusting God is always worth the risk.
What Other Reviewers Are Saying
“Oh, I love this book. . . . Honest and hopeful, masterfully written, both a balm and a bolstering.”—Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author
“A special work that honors life’s deep griefs, great joys, and unsettled in-betweens through every sacred season, assuring us that we are never alone.”—J.S. Park, Hospital Chaplain and Author
Holding you in the light,
God accompanies us through every season. “The promise has never been smooth nor safe passage. The divine promise is presence.” @heystephsmith in #EvenAfterEverything via @ConvergentBooks
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“History does not portray the church in a very flattering light, and yet God perseveres in love.” This sentence grabbed my attention, Michele. It is sadly true. May we get a grip on God, letting Him get a grip on us so that we don’t continue in the path of foolishness. May we shine His light brightly for this world so needs Jesus.
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You’ve certainly suggested the solution to our perception problem! Getting ” a grip on God” would bring us together around the truth!
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AMEN to this: “God accompanies us through every season. “The promise has never been smooth nor safe passage. The divine promise is presence.” To some, that may seem a hollow promise, not realizing the comfort, peace, stability, hope, and more that’s available to us as we avail ourselves to him. Another author, Aliza Latta, put it this way: “There is always good because there is always God . . . even when nothing else around us is good. His presence in the midst of our deepest pain is a good gift indeed (Take Heart, 162). Praise God for his faithful, attentive presence!
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I love that quote, Nancy. Always good—always God. What a sure and certain foundation for our hope!
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Thanks for this book recommendation… I receive Stephanie’s emails and have been meaning to grab a copy—you’ve given me the nudge I needed! 🤗 Stopping by from #graceandtruthlinkup
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Always happy to connect books and readers!
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Knowing the risk and loving anyway is sometimes hard to do, but in Christ, we can do hard things. Thank you for this review. I should add this book to my very long reading list. 🙂
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You are SO right! Every instinct cautions us to play it safe—and then we remember that we have been loved and received with loving abandon by the God who “sings over us,” and it changes everything!
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