Book Club: The beautiful truth of Christian faith

This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson and Hannah's inspiring faith in 1 Samuel 1

Hey friends,

Last week, I started a book that knocked the wind out of me almost instantly.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Sally Clarkson, but if not, I highly recommend reading her books posthaste as well as those written by her husband Clay and their four adult children, who are all of my generation.

Daughter Sarah is the author of This Beautiful Truth, which centers around the core truth, goodness, and beauty that binds the cosmos together in the stunning, shimmering, and salvific design spoken into being by God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

She tells the story of her struggle with a lesser-known form of OCD that has manifested itself in the form of intrusive, horrific, and haunting thoughts of violence, perversion, and dread.

The book had me in tears within moments; for anyone who has struggled with mental illness, grief, or pressing despair it is a potent, painful, beautiful story of God’s goodness, His beauty, and His truth.

One passage that spoke to the depths of my soul and resonates with the biblically recorded human experience through the ages:

I believe God cries out to us in our grief in the potent language of image and experience, answering our pain not with the explanations we may crave but with an experience of his goodness so tangible that we know hope, not as a proposition we speak but a burning in the blood, a tingling of the skin.

The long-suffering Hannah of 1 Samuel 1 has a story that shows us the triumph of God’s goodness over grief and barrenness.