Dr. Tony Evans - Divine Disruption: Holding on to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart

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ISBN 978-0-7852-4117-1 (audiobook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-4116-4 (eBook)

Epub Edition September 2021 9780785241164

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ISBN 978-0-7852-4114-0

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If God showed us the whole journey, wed never take the first step.

DR. LOIS EVANS

CONTENTS

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

GALATIANS 5:2223

Gentle strength. That is my mother, her spirit, the way she carried herself. Mom was never aggressive. True strength does not need to push or be loud. Its quiet, calm. Gentle strength comes from the peace that passes understanding, from resting in the Lord.

Whether Sunday morning, Wednesday-night church, or gathered in the kitchen at home, Dr. Lois Evans was the same, and this is how we were raisedChrystal, Priscilla, Jonathan, and me. With that same gentle strength, in the most difficult moments of her fight, she looked each of us straight in the eye and said, I want you to be doing ministry together.

All four of us are involved in some form of ministry individually, each of us doing our own thing. Ive been in and out of Los Angeles for years, working in the film and television industry while continuing to do gospel and worship music. Occasionally, we would work together on projects, Priscilla and me or maybe a few dates with Jonathan and Chrystal. But Moms message was clear. All of you. Together.

With that said, we took the hardest season of our lives, in the midst of personal, national, and global tragedy, to come together and honor our mothers final wish. We are calling this ministry together Kingdom Legacy. Its our way of paying tribute to her strength, her legacy, her faithfulness to raise us day in and day out as servants, to impact people for the kingdom and to glorify God.

This is where we begin. Small steps and open conversations. Telling our story in the most authentic, transparent, and humble way possible. Asking the difficult questions, examining our faith. Is it stage faith, or is it real? What beauty can truly come from ashes? What does it mean to dig deep as life has broken our hearts?

Broken has become something of a clich in Christian culture. We have lost loved ones, battled sickness, and struggled to make it through the toughest of days. We have sat in far too many doctors offices, hospitals, and funeral homes. Praying, waiting, crying together and alone. Fighting through sleepless nights and anxious cross-country flights. Drinking bad coffee. Seems even our scars have scars. Broken is no clich. We have all been hit so hard.

The Evans family is not alone. The entire world is shaking. War, famine, fear, plague, civil unrest, financial loss, and family members dying. Even as I write these words, we are in the midst of a freak winter storm that has trapped Dallas under a blanket of snow and ice. Millions are without power and water, even sleeping in their cars to stay warm.

The regularly scheduled programming of our lives has been disrupted. Remember that? As a kid, it was always frightening (and frustrating) when the network would cut into one of my favorite TV shows with a news bulletin. In Texas that could mean tornadoes coming or gale winds, some man-made or natural disaster barreling down. But the message coming through was important. It just might save your life.

Life has been interrupted, but we have to believe there is a divine message in the disruption somehow. One that could save our lives and, ultimately, bring us closer to each other and God.

So, in starting ministry together, we invite you, the reader, in. Everybody together. My mother always liked that. She knew something was coming. Proverbs says that a good parent lays up treasure for generations to come. All of you. Together. Trusting God.

Thats the only way through.

Here we are, together, all four Evans kids and our dad, to talk about holding tight to faith when life has broken your heart.

This is a different kind of book. In it, youll find our familys story of disruption, but because we are a family of pastors, teachers, preachers, and worship leaders, its our nature to take what we have experienced and find the good. We hope you will learn and grow spiritually as we walk this road together, seeing Gods hand through hard times.

What follows in , the tone becomes more devotional. But more importantly, its all a conversation, like coming over to our familys house on a Saturday evening to sit around the table and talk about life, God, and how to keep moving in the face of enormous struggle and loss. Each of us will speak, and we pray that you find hope and unique perspective in our individual voices.

And some of us might talk more than others. Just as if we were sitting around the table.

Thats Jonathan, my younger brother. To keep things clear, well label each family member before they speak. There will be a lot of back-and-forth, sometimes all five of us, sometimes only two. Weve never done anything like this before. Actually, were not sure anyone else has either.