Kara Tippetts - Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking through Suffering Together

JUST SHOW UP

Published by David C Cook

4050 Lee Vance View

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C Cook Distribution Canada

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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

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All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

LCCN 2015936252

ISBN 978-1-4347-0953-0

eISBN 978-1-4347-0961-5

2015 Kara Tippetts and Jill Buteyn

Published in association with William K. Jensen Literary Agency, 119 Bampton Court, Eugene, OR 97404

The Team: Ingrid Beck, John Blase, Nick Lee, Helen Macdonald, Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Konyndyk

Cover Photo: istockphoto.com

First Edition 2015

Photo by Good Photo

The late Kara Tippetts was the author of The Hardest Peace and blogged faithfully at MundaneFaithfulness.com . Since her death in March 2015, her husband, Jason, is parenting their four children and leading the church they founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Jill Lynn Buteyn is the author of Falling for Texas , an inspirational novel, and a recipient of the ACFW Genesis Award for her fiction work. Jill lives near the beautiful Rocky Mountains with her husband and two children. Connect with her on social media and at Jill-Lynn.com .

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What people are saying about

Just Show Up

Kara Tippetts changed my life and thousands of others lives because she was a rare, singular voice who, when facing the end of her life here, had street cred to speak about what really matters. Open these rich, radical pages and give yourself the gift of friendship like youve always wanted and community like youve only hoped forbefore its too late to just show up .

Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Praise for

The Hardest Peace

Kara writes honestly about a subject that few of us want to confront. She even manages to find humor in the midst of a horrifying situation. Most importantly, she points readers to the hope that is found in a God whose grace is sufficient for every trial, and whose love for His children is steadfast even in the face of despair.

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family

Kara Tippettss book The Hardest Peace is at the same time deeply convicting and encouraging. Kara is brutally honest in sharing her struggles all the way from a young girl to now as a mother of four battling recurrent cancer. Through it all, she has found the deep reality of Gods grace and love. This is a book everyone ought to read.

Jerry Bridges, author of Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

No one chooses suffering, but everyone has the freedom to choose how to respond to it. Because she chooses Christ, Kara Tippetts can not only endure the pain and ugliness of her pilgrimage through the desert of cancer, but on the journey, she can also find beauty, wonder, joy, and even freedom from the cares of this world. By showing us how to die, Kara Tippetts shows us how to live.

Rod Dreher, author of The Little Way of Ruthie Leming

Losing myself in the startling light of Karas story, I have found who I am, who He is, and more of the meaning of every breath.

Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts

Contents

Introduction

You have to be grateful whenever you get to someplace safe and okay, even if it turns out it wasnt quite where you were heading.

Anne Lamott, Small Victories

Hi. My name is Kara Tippetts, and I may not be alive when you read this book. I hope so, but I dont know. That decision is in the hands of the Author of my lifeHis name is Jesus. I trust Him with every ounce of who I am. The reality is I am dying, and some of that story is told in my book The Hardest Peace . There are other pieces that were hinted at in that book but not developed at length. Its not because those pieces arent important, because they are. Its just that they were best kept for another book, one that I hoped to write with my good friend Jill.

Jill and I dreamed and talked about writing a book together, one that would try to take the mystery out of walking with one another through suffering. Thats the book you have in your hands. We would have liked to write a book that took the uncomfortable or awkward out, but theres no way we could do that and be honest. Because honestly, its hard. But its not difficult. You just have to show up. Thats not some kind of secret figurative language. Were talking about literally showing up.

There is so much power in showing up, humble power in saying, Im here. I may not have the answers, but Im here. Most often its those who come without answers or agendas who are the most helpful. Those people have been invaluable to our home. Jill has been one of those people. Thats why I wanted her help on this project. She knows what shes writing about. In being a friend to me during this season, shes seen the bad, the ugly, and the horrible. But shes also seen the beautiful. And the beautiful has been worth it. So worth it.

Life can be numbing when the story is flailing along in suffering. Life can be pretty difficult even on the good days, but throw cancer or divorce or bankruptcy or the death of a child into the mix and everything becomes dizzying. Sometimes even paralyzing. So often we would be spinning in weariness from my latest diagnosis or round of tests and wed even forget to eat. Can you imagine, forgetting to eat? Its true. But the sensitive hearts of our community showed up, ready to help.

It has been beautiful to watch God gently care for our needs so specifically through the care of our community. The care came in both unexpected and specific ways most days. Ways that I didnt ask for or know I needed. But even more than my needs, God has cared for the tender hearts of my children and my husband. He has shepherded and protected them fiercely throughout my diagnosis, and now as we are moving toward my last breath, I see the gentle hand of protection ever upon my family, ready with present grace to walk them through the hard good-bye.