Kara Tippetts - And It Was Beautiful: Celebrating Life in the Midst of the Long Good-Bye

I was here. I saw beauty. I embraced it.

Thats what Kara Tippetts said. Thats also what she lived in her thirty-nine years. And then she died. Some people might cringe at that last sentence, might say a person that age is just getting started. Such people didnt know Kara Tippetts. Although born with a poets knack for paying attention, the last few years of her life were laser focused because of the presence of cancer throughout her body, a cancer that she grew to call a gift.

Every moment seems so special. The truth is, it is. That is the gift of cancer. The struggle is the fear. The fear of this amazing world of people I love more than anything marching forward without me in it. There is a lot of pride and arrogance in that thinking. A friend and I were talking about the control that comes with thinking life is as it should be with us in it. But the truth is, life is exactly planned. Exactly numbered. My job in this day is to live near to Jesus. To seek faithfulness in this day. I want to have a peaceful heart that embraces each gift of joy as it comes.

Some people might bristle at using the word gift to describe cancer. Such people should have met Kara Tippetts. She might not have changed their mind, but she definitely would have caused them to at least consider her perspective. To be in her presence was to be in the presence of someone surrendered to Godnot resigned but surrendered, and there is a difference. And that difference was persuasive in the most naturally wooing of ways.

This book is a collection of her writings, most of them taken from her blog, Mundane Faithfulness . Care has been taken to present her thoughts with a minimum of changes out of a sense of respect. Kara had a distinct voice and a special way of arranging words; her style continues to draw people months after her death. The entries here are arranged according to acts like the acts in a play. The acts do not represent a strict chronology, but they do follow the arc of her story. This approach may seem very basic, but Kara would have approved heartily. She liked the simple and the mundane, believing that it was in the ordinary that she saw the beautiful. And for Kara, the beautiful was

like a ship

that carried [her]

through the wildest storm of all.

Rainer Maria Rilke

You will notice three complete acts listed in the table of contents. Kara is living her fourth act now in the presence of the One who kept her on this earth, and keeps her still, now in His loving arms.

You will see the names of Karas family throughout these chapters. For those of you not familiar with them, they are Jason (husband), Ella Grace (oldest daughter), Harper Joy (next daughter), Lake Edward (son), and Story Jane (youngest daughter). Also mentioned are her sister (Kara spelled it seester), Jonna, and Karas good friend and caregiver, Mickey.

It is our privilege to publish this book posthumously. Our prayer is that Karas words bring you encouragement and hope. We know they have and continue to do so for us.

The David C Cook Editorial Team

ACT ONE

My dream went all the way back to the beginning.

Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close