Laurie Short - Finding Faith in the Dark: When the Story of Your Life Takes a Turn You Didnt Plan

Praise for Finding Faith in the Dark

Finding Faith in the Dark is filled with stories of people who want to believe when their worlds seem not to support belief. Thats the world where real people find the real God. You may find your story here too.

JOHN ORTBERG, senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, California, and author of If You Want to Walk on Water, Youve Got to Get Out of the Boat

Ive seen Laurie in action at a Youth Specialties convention and at her church. After hearing her seesaw account of life as a single, and now married, woman, I urged her to write her story. I thought it would encourage many others.

PHILIP YANCEY, award-winning author of The Jesus I Never Knew and Whats So Amazing about Grace?

Laurie Short has been following Jesus into places of light and of darkness because all of that is part of being an authentic person and a genuine disciple. Here she reflects on lessons she has seen in her life and in the lives of others. Let her honesty of faith lead and encourage your own.

MARK LABBERTON, president of Fuller Theological Seminary

There are certain books you read, and certain books you experience as you read. Finding Faith in the Dark leads us to experience the truth that there is purpose in the plans we never pick, because there is a God who chooses to use any plan for his good. Im grateful for a book that doesnt give easy answers to hard questions but leads us to experience the One whose presence always provides just enough light to know we are never alone.

HELEN MUSICK, transformation pastor at Quest Community Church, Lexington, Kentucky

This book will be unbelievably helpful to so many people who are eager to know that Someone helped them find a sure and steady hand on their shoulder guiding them to all the right places and all the right people. Faith comes to some of us when we least expect it even when it is dark and our footing is unsure. I cant tell you how joyful I am that Laurie wrote this book for people like me, and maybe for you. It is this guidance we need to find the very path that will lead us to exactly where we need and want to go.

NEIL CLARK WARREN, founder and CEO of Eharmony.com and author of Finding the Love of your Life

Finding Faith in the Dark is Laurie Shorts amazingly inspiring story of finding hope and joy in the midst of broken dreams. Actually, its everyones story. You will find beauty and meaning on every page. Laurie writes with the same authenticity she daily lives out. She is a masterful storyteller, and you will feel like youre sitting across from her as she mentors you and gives you strength. Find a quiet spot, and get ready to be encouraged.

JIM BURNS, PHD, president of HomeWord and author of Confident Parenting

As we navigate our Christian lives in a broken and upside-down reality, this book provides the hope that God is still working thru our situations in amazing ways. Allow this resource to bless you and equip you to find God within your trials.

REV. EFREM SMITH, president and CEO of World Impact and author of The Post-Black and Post-White Church

If you need to hear how faith can deepen when your prayers arent answered the way you had hoped, Lauries book is the one to read. She shares from wisdom she has earned. Its a story that will keep you reading to the last page. This is a book to savor.

PAULA RINEHART, author of Sex and the Soul of a Woman

ZONDERVAN

Finding Faith in the Dark

Copyright 2014 by Laurie Short

ePub Edition May 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-33708-9

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Drive SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Short, Laurie, 1972

Finding faith in the dark : when the story of your life takes a turn you didnt plan / Laurie Short. 1st [edition].

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-310-33711-9 (softcover)

1. Faith. 2. Trust in God. 3. Expectation (Psychology) Religious aspects Christianity. I. Title.

BV4637.S48 2014

234'.23 dc23

2013041257

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., 10152 S. Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130 (www.wordserveliterary.com).

Cover design: James Hall

Cover photo: Shutterstock

Interior design: Katherine Lloyd, The DESK

First printing June 2014

To Jere and Jordan Short,
Gods great story for my life.
You mean more to me than you will ever know.

CONTENTS

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,

Give me a light so that I may tread safely into the unknown!

And he replied, Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

That shall be to you better than a known light andsafer than a known way.

Minnie Louise Haskins, The Gate of the Year

In the first book of the Bible, we find a curious story. The patriarch Jacob enters into an all-night wrestling match with an angel of God, locks him in a hold, and then whispers, I will not let you go unless you bless me (Genesis 32:26).

The audaciousness of Jacobs request is only surpassed by the surprise of what happens next. The angel does what Jacob asks. He reaches out and touches Jacob, the searing power of his finger leaving a limp in Jacobs body and penetrating his soul.

Jacob wanted what only God could give the really good things, the blessings. But Jacobs blessing came with something he hadnt asked for, and that limp was what changed him.

Our own experiences of wrestling with God rarely happen in one night, as it did for Jacob. Sometimes they happen over years even decades as we try to figure out what God is doing, why that blessing we were counting on isnt coming the way we hoped. Maybe youve been there.

The husband or wife you prayed for never came.

The husband or wife you stayed faithful to had an affair.

The death of a spouse or child tore your heart.

A parents abuse or addiction damaged your life.

A diagnosis took away your health and your future.

When these things happen, we are left wondering, Where is that God who promises to answer our prayers if we delight in him? Why isnt my life turning out the way I hoped, let alone how I had planned?

If youve ever been somewhere in life you dont want to be, this book is for you. And more than helping you find your way out of that place, my hope is that this book will help you find your way in that place, because I believe there is something that place has to give you. Hope springs from the fact that our story is never finished until we leave this earth. Something can always happen.

Thats why you have to hold on. God can show up where you least expect him to be.