Are you living with chronic illness, or do you know someone who is? You are not alone. The third book in the Survival series, Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames explores the many facets of life that can be ravaged by the fires of illness: workplaces, church life, relationships,...
Are you living with chronic illness, or do you know someone who is? You are not alone. The third book in the Survival series, Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames explores the many facets of life that can be ravaged by the fires of illness: workplaces, church life, relationships, sanity and even faith. With her trademark humour and brutal honesty, Steph Penny shares the ups and downs of chronic illness through the lens of her lived experience of lupus (also known as ‘the great chameleon’). Steph asks the hard questions of faith—‘How can we follow a God who chooses not to heal us?’—and explores the challenges of living with profound and maddening mystery. Surviving Chronic Illness has a chapter for carers, so if you care for a family member or friend or other loved one, you might find this resonates with you. For those leading a church, this book is chock-full of suggestions for how to make the church more inclusive of those living with chronic illness. Life with chronic illness can be exhausting (as anyone who has lived with chronic illness for more than five minutes knows), as well as traumatic and filled with grief; yet grace awaits us in every twist and turn of illness, even in the midst of the inferno. If you are looking for a book which at once laments and offers hope—if you are tired of trite responses to your physical, mental and spiritual struggles—if unsolicited health advice has you reaching for a sick bag—then Surviving Chronic Illness is for you.
Are you living with chronic illness, or do you know someone who is? You are not alone. The third book in the Survival series, Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames explores the many facets of life that can be ravaged by the fires of illness: workplaces, church life, relationships,...
Are you living with chronic illness, or do you know someone who is? You are not alone. The third book in the Survival series, Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames explores the many facets of life that can be ravaged by the fires of illness: workplaces, church life, relationships, sanity and even faith. With her trademark humour and brutal honesty, Steph Penny shares the ups and downs of chronic illness through the lens of her lived experience of lupus (also known as ‘the great chameleon’). Steph asks the hard questions of faith—‘How can we follow a God who chooses not to heal us?’—and explores the challenges of living with profound and maddening mystery. Surviving Chronic Illness has a chapter for carers, so if you care for a family member or friend or other loved one, you might find this resonates with you. For those leading a church, this book is chock-full of suggestions for how to make the church more inclusive of those living with chronic illness. Life with chronic illness can be exhausting (as anyone who has lived with chronic illness for more than five minutes knows), as well as traumatic and filled with grief; yet grace awaits us in every twist and turn of illness, even in the midst of the inferno. If you are looking for a book which at once laments and offers hope—if you are tired of trite responses to your physical, mental and spiritual struggles—if unsolicited health advice has you reaching for a sick bag—then Surviving Chronic Illness is for you.
Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames$22.00
Wow, this book gave me amazing insights into the challenges facing my friends who live with a chronic illness. They often don’t talk about them openly but Steph has the gift of communicating the truths in an honest, thoughtful yet cheeky style.
The book really offers a strong message to everyone going through tough times. I loved the debate on how to navigate questions of faith and still find encouragement and a reason to praise God despite the pain not just through healing. Well done Steph.
JB
Jo-Anne B.
I recommend this product
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
9 months ago
An insightful gem
In this invaluable volume, Steph Penny tells it like it is for those suffering chronic illness and, in the process, gives them a voice we all need to hear. Yet she also reaches out to them with grace, understanding and compassion, sharing tested life strategies and encouraging them to see they are more than their illness. The quirky humour the author employs throughout the book, combined with her clear, relaxed, inclusive writing style, serves to make a difficult topic much more reader-friendly, and her sincere determination to hold onto her faith in God, while battling her own ill-health and while still having so many unanswered questions herself, is both inspiring and challenging to us all.
A
Anonymous
I do not recommend this product
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
1 year ago
An ok read
There are some good foundations to this book, with encouraging pacing and having support strategies in place for the hard times (having action plans to turn to as needed). It is more a narrative of the authors own journey with chronic illness (lived experience) and not a medical/practical Christian book on chronic illnesses. It is definitely “surviving” a chronic illness, not “thriving” with a chronic illness.
The Christian aspects of the book are from a Pentecostal point of view.
Sarcasm is used through the book, which I didn’t find helpful. For me sarcasm takes away from the seriousness of chronic health conditions and having a genuine relationship with our Heavenly Father.
This book does discuss mental health issues, which is great in a Christian context (often something churches don’t discuss or normalise). Mental health struggles with chronic physical health issues are often seen together. There are references to the author experiencing suicidal thoughts (no details given, except they are experienced). This may be triggering for some.
I live with a chronic illness and I didn’t find this book the most helpful
