Esther Fleece Allen - No More Faking Fine: Ending the Pretending

PRAISE FOR NO MORE FAKING FINE

How we grieve is directly related to how we heal. Esther Fleece introduces the language of lament and argues persuasively that this is a prayer God never ignores. No More Faking Fine is a book for anyone wrestling with the unavoidable tension created when the faithful suffer.

ANDY STANLEY, communicator, author, and pastor

For many of us, when someone asks how were doing, our automatic response is fineeven when we arent. Esther Fleece transparently shares her story of faking fine until she couldnt anymoreand how God has brought emotional healing as she learned to stop pretending. This is an encouraging and helpful book.

JIM DALY, president of Focus on the Family

No More Faking Fine deepened and solidified my understanding of bringing God into every part of my life, especially when it comes to difficulties and grief. I know this will help heal, challenge, and encourage people wherever they are in life. This is such a needed book for our time!

RACHEL CRUZE, #1 New York Times bestselling author

and personal finance expert

In a culture full of facades, Esther Fleece unpacks the vital and overlooked role of honest lament in our complete healing from lifes harshest storms. No More Faking Fine leads us on a biblical yet scarcely traveled road, where God meets us in the midst of our deepest pain, in ways unlike any we could possibly experience in our greatest victories.

BENJAMIN WATSON, National Football League

tight end and author

Esther Fleece exposes her personal pain to us in this book. She exposes what that pain did to distort her reality and shift her from truly trusting that God is near. Her pain forced her to the Scriptures, and the Scriptures exposed a way through the pain. This book is a gift to be led through the Word in this wayto be encouraged to give voice to our destructive thoughts and memories, to receive permission to let it all out to God. There is no judgment of our hurt or our painful experiences. All are worthy to be heard by God. Thank you, Esther, for sharing your story and teaching us to be free to lament.

SARAH AND MATTHEW HASSELBECK,

ESPN analyst and retired NFL quarterback

Many days, it just feels easier to fake being fine. Esther Fleeces powerful voice for lament, beautifully told through her splintered story, allures me into authenticity before God. She invites us to this ancient, yet out-of-fashion way and introduces another side of God to those of us who are hungry for more than those pat answers to what aches within our insides.

SARA HAGERTY, author of Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet

Esther Fleeces powerful story encourages us to be honest to God and to each other. Life isnt easy in a world under the curse, nor does God intend it to be. The poison of prosperity theology has set up countless Christians for disillusionment because theyve been told theyre supposed to always be healthy, wealthy, successful, popular, and just fine. As Esther demonstrates, we need the authenticity of David and the prophets and Paul and, above all, Jesus, recognizing that God will be with us when our hearts are broken. He can infuse us with joy even when we are suffering. One day, Gods children will live happily ever after. Until that day comes, lets give ourselves and each other permission to grieve and feel pain, loss, and discouragement. In other words, lets quit faking fine so we can gladly embrace together the comfort of Jesus.

RANDY ALCORN, founder and director of Eternal

Perspective Ministries and author of Heaven and Happiness

Esther Fleece writes an authentic and vulnerable book that we all need to read. Esther helps us to recover the language and practice of lament. This is for anyone who has been disappointed in life but is determined to overcome and live honestly and sincerely.

BRADY BOYD, pastor of New Life Church, Colorado

Springs, and author of Speak Life and Addicted to Busy

I have walked with Jesus my entire adult life and never read anything so powerful calling us to lament. Esther Fleece is the real deal. Her life is a genuine lament of brokenness and celebration of Gods redemption.

DR. JULI SLATTERY, president of Authentic Intimacy

Esther Fleece is a gift to the church. No More Faking Fine is just the book many Christians need to understand the biblical call to lament. The only way out of the valley of sorrow is through the path of lament. Let Fleece be your guide on the journey to joy.

PHILLIP BETHANCOURT, executive vice president

of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC)

Dear reader: This book is your permission. To hurt, to cry, to scream, to grieve, to feel. And on the other side of that lament is a journey more beautifuland a God more nearthan you could have ever imagined.

ALLISON TROWBRIDGE, author of Twenty-Two

I need this book. We need this book. We are a people who live in a world of increasing virtual reality, honing to a fine art the wearing of masks. God is calling us, through the tragedy of Esther Fleeces story, to a contrite and humble lament. He is calling His people to weep before Him because their own brokenness and the brokenness of the world around them is so tragically not what it should be. It is only in this true honesty before God that we will find the comfort of His grace and peace and our eventual healing.

DR. DEL TACKETT, creator of Focus on the Familys

The Truth Project

Esther Fleece truly displays the courage of her biblical namesake in this book. Expressing grief, pain, and doubt can be dangerous in our current culture, even in the church. She brilliantly lays out the case for choosing vulnerability rather than inauthenticity and demonstrates how Gods glory is revealed through every aspect of the human experience, includingmaybe especiallylament.

KIRSTEN HAGLUND, political analyst and commentator,

Miss America 2008

No More Faking Fine is a desperately needed book, helping all Christians who have felt obligated to hide their hurt, pain, grief, and rejection and put on a fake happy face. This book provides a pathway to experiencing the joy and peace that come with being honest with God and with each other about our inner pain and grief. Well done!

DR. RICHARD LAND, president of Southern

Evangelical Seminary

In this much-needed book, Esther Fleece provides an honest account of her journey toward the biblical practice of lamenting. Learning the language of lament can be difficult, but Esther writes as a friend linking arms and walking alongside the reader in a journey of discovery. The pages of this book are drenched in Scripture, which encouraged my awareness that I am permitted to lament and sharpened my understanding of God and his character. Esthers undeniable affection for the Bible and her firm hold on what God says in his Word are affirming. She reminds us that when we are in unstable times, we have a firm foundation to turn to in Gods Word.

LAUREN GREEN MCAFEE, corporate ambassador

for Hobby Lobby and third-generation member of the

Hobby Lobby Green family

Esther Fleece has always been a voice of encouragement and hope to me and many others. In No More Faking Fine, she brings hope by courageously pulling back the curtain on her life and guiding us through the valley of tears. The result is a recovery of lament as a form of praise and a pathway to hope. To lament is to bear witness to a God who sees and hears, heals and answersa God who will one day wipe away every tear and make all things new.