September 14, 2005
The One Year Book of Hope
Nancy Guthrie. Tyndale, $14.99 (438p) ISBN 1-4143-0133-2

People who are experiencing terrible grief don't want to hear platitudes from someone who has never walked in their shoes. What sets Guthrie's consolation literature apart is that she has clearly been through hell and still manages to find joy. Readers may remember her story, recounted in Time magazine and in her own book, Holding on to Hope. Two of her three children were born with a deadly rare disease called Zellweger Syndrome, and lived only about six months each. Processing pain, she explains, is an ongoing daily endeavor, so she created 52 weeks' worth of daily devotions, organized around themes like brokenheartedness, faith, and questioning God. Guthrie never runs from hard questions, from the section on heaven (what are our loved ones doing up there? What will our bodies be like?) to a week on finding purpose in pain. (Here, Guthrie discusses how she has used her own experiences to minister to hurting people, and encourages others to do the same as they feel ready.) Where other devotionals offer tiny and undemanding snippets from Scripture, Guthrie's approach is meatier, and we see her genuinely wrestling with some of the more difficult passages of the Bible. Throughout, Guthrie's soul-searching honesty and personal anecdotes make her a perfect companion in times of deep sorrow. (Oct.)

There is a balm for the sorrowful heart, and, not surprisingly, it comes through the heart of one who has suffered pain herself. The only thing that really helped when this author lost two babies to Zellweger Syndrome was the Word of God-daily. Manna she calls it. And daily manna from God’s own Word is what she offers others through this sensitive and truly comforting book of daily devotions. Wise enough to realize she couldn’t expect readers to ingest a year’s worth of her pain, she has acknowledged, but reached past it, keeping the reader’s pain at the forefront of her mind as she wrote. Yet her own experience with suffering energizes, sensitizes, and deepens her love offering.

Using fifty-two themes as a framework gives this book a weekly, as well as a daily, rhythm. Under each weekly theme, there are devotions for each day-Monday through Friday-and also a guide for reflection, meditation, and prayer for the weekend. The focus is the Word. "My words have nourishing power only as far as they capture and convey the truth of God’s Word." People going through minor, as well as major, loss and pain can benefit from this gentle, comforting book.

Dallas Morning News
Saturday, January 28, 2006

The One Year Book of Hope
Nancy Guthrie

Sometimes it seems as if pain and loss stalk us, waiting until we're not looking to fell us with a one-two punch to the heart.

Nancy Guthrie knows what it's like to feel that knife blade of grief, the kind of pain that is all-consuming, that leads us to rail against God and all the injustice it seems he lets slip by.

But it is that experience – the deaths of two babies from a rare metabolic disorder – that brings her closer to God and gives her the strength to use her loss for others' gain. This book of yearlong devotions is her heartfelt attempt to help others find hope amid suffering.

The daily devotions are meant to draw the reader closer to God and the comfort he offers. Ms. Guthrie includes Scripture with each passage to help readers dip deeper into God's word and find meaning in the loss. She provides a weekly summary with questions and meditations and prayers to help the reader find peace.

Although the book is geared toward those who have suffered great loss, it would be helpful for those struggling through a crisis of any sort. Its wisdom and clearly thought-out advice would be a good way for anyone to start out the new year.

Sara Campbell