The Unwanted Blessing
When you grieve, the world changes. Most writing on grief views it from the outside—like seeing a distant planet through a telescope. The Unwanted Blessing is written by a father at the center of it all, dealing with the loss of a son to cancer. Rather than offering answers or distractions, it offers a collage of feelings, events, questions, and prayers—a close-up, first-hand orientation to an unmapped landscape. The new terrain is laid bare at your feet, stripped of any intellectual veneer. In acknowledging the way it is, the book provides signposts of comfort in simply letting the reader know they are not alone. Perhaps grieving is about going to where God is absent for a bit, so that we can find him again. Perhaps it is God's unwanted blessing.
A Taste of What's Inside
From the Foreword by Morgan Meis:
Most books about grief, I hate to say it, are terrible. They are terrible because they try to make you feel better right away. When you are grieving, you don't want to be talked at. You want to be seen and understood. Jim Stallings has written a book about grief that is not really 'about' grief, which is why it is so good. It is really a book written in and through grief. He has written a beautiful little book. A hard book. But a book that is good to read and should be read.
From The Prologue:
Grief is realizing that what you had is gone. You can never be what you once were.
Grief has a way of moving us from the auditorium seats to the stage — whether we are ready or not.
Perhaps it is God's unwanted blessing. Entering into grief is about going to where God is absent for a bit, so that we can find him again.
If this is the book you've been looking for —
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