Ramon Presson - When Will My Life Not Suck?: Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

Im so thankful Ramon Presson has written this book. I can only imagine the authentic hope and real help each person will receive through reading it. Its the kind of book we all need to read over and over! What a gift.

Pete Wilson

Author, Plan B

Presson as a pastor/counselor has had a front-row seat to suffering. In his book, he goes to the mat with God over the Why questions of life. He cleverly gives the reader a truckload of cynic-resistant nuggets of hope. Presson brilliantly redeems the diary of why written on the fabric of our souls.

Jackie Kendall, Author of best-selling book, Lady in Waiting ; President,

Power to Grow Ministries

When Will My Life Not Suck? is a rare combination of authenticity, wit, and Scripture-based wisdom. Dismissing the flimsy promises of the self-help industry, this book takes seriously the ugly fact that our lives simply dont look in every season like a fairy-tale endingbut that we also dont need to stay forever in a place of disillusionment and discontent. When Will My Life Not Suck? manages to be both thoroughly funny and deeply seriousnot to mention eminently practical in its step-by-step approach toward a life of meaning and purpose.

Joy Jordan-Lake, Ph.D., Author of five books, including Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous and Blue Hole Back Home ; Adjunct professor, Belmont University

Lets be honest. Weve all asked this questionRamon Presson just pushes the question out into the open, precisely where it needs to be. If you want to laugh and ponder and move closer toward life, you will find a friend in these pages.

Winn Collier, Author of Restless Faith and Holy Curiosity , winncollier.com

When Will My Life Not Suck? is, in Ramons own words, an exercise in perspective. Walking with Paul, he ushers us into the presence of the living God and confronts us with the truth: the birthplace of Authentic Hope is pain. Spiritual transformation is discovered in a lifetime of suffering, brokenness, and perseverance. When Life sucks ...God is at work. Ramon opens the door. I beg you to walk through it with him. Grasp the hand of the Spirit of God. Prepare for a journey of a lifetime.

Dewey Greene, Author of Painful Gifts ; COO of Polaris Hospital Company

Ramon speaks truth from a sincere heart that has been there. He understands and knows how to communicate living through it. You will laugh and cry...and you will be better for it. Ramon actually answers the question he asks.

Doug Dees, Pastor; Author of Resymbol: A Guide to Rethink, Redefine and Release the Church

With Thanks

To Maureen DeLyon
who believed a broken young man would heal and grow and make a difference with his life and his writing. You were Jesus with skin on.

To my wife, Dorrie,
who has not only supported the development of this book but the decades-long development of the author in all facets of his life. You are grace personified.

Foreword

W hen I read the introduction and first chapter of this manuscript, I wrote the author and said, Send me more. I knew this was a book I wanted to read. My enthusiasm was fully rewarded: I laughed.
I cried. I identified. And now I am encouraging you to do the same.

Not everyone has experienced divorce, the death of a child, or a cancer diagnosis, but everyone has experienced pain. Sometimes pain is worn on the face, and sometimes it is buried deep within the soul. It may have occurred yesterday or thirty years ago, but things happen that trouble the human psyche, and the hurt does not quickly evaporate.

If pain is not confronted, it can steal all of lifes joy. That is never Gods desire. Pain that has been processed yields nourishment for the soul. Most of us need help in how to process the hurt. We get bogged down in the suffering and life becomes unproductive.

Ramon Presson has the unique ability of unveiling the hurt and pointing the way to hope. This book is not designed to be a fast fix. It is rather a book about truth that sheds light on pain. It is a book about encountering God when he seems to be hiding.

The book is written not from an ivory tower, but from the trenches of life. While Ramon is a professional counselor, you will not be given psychological jargon. Rather you will feel the pain of a real person who writes out of lifes struggles. My experience has taught me that the people who write best write honestly. Here you will read truth that is couched in reality and expressed in candor. Truth always leads to hope and freedom.

Gary Chapman

When Will My Life Not Suck?

authentic hope for the disillusioned

Ramon Presson

www.newgrowthpress.com

Publishers Information

New Growth Press, Greensboro, NC 27429

Copyright 2010 by Ramon Presson. All rights reserved.

Published in association with Eames Literary Services, LLC,

Nashville, Tennessee.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan, all rights reserved.

Other Scripture quotations are MSG, The Message, copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group; NASB, the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, used by permission; NLT, the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189, all rights reserved.

Cover Design: Tandem Creative, Tom Temple, tandemcreative.net

Typesetting: Lisa Parnell, Thompsons Station, TN

ISBN-13: 978-1-935273-80-6

ISBN-10: 1-935273-80-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Presson, Ramon.

When will my life not suck? : authentic hope for the disillusioned / Ramon Louis Presson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-935273-80-6 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-935273-80-9 (alk. paper)

1. Depression, MentalReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Depressed personsReligious life. 3. SufferingReligious aspectsChristianity. 4. Expectation (Psychology)Religious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BV4910.34.P74 2010

248.8 625dc22

2010017193

Printed in Canada

17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5

Acknowledgments

I d like to thank the following people for their contribution to this project: John Eames, my agent, was the first to believe in this project, and he walked with me through the process from proposal to completion. Karen Jacklin Teears and Mark Teears at New Growth Press enthusiastically championed the books message and embraced the title that others wanted to change. Jonathan Rogers, my editor, kept improving the manuscript with his insights and attention to detail. Barbara Juliani expertly guided the book through the maze and obstacle course of publication, and Nick Darrell did the tedious work of copyediting.

Thanks also to Cheryl White and Tom Temple for believing that while you cant judge a book by its cover, if a book doesnt get your attention its message remains completely hidden.

When writing something that contains so much of my own spiritual journey, Im moved to thank some of the many strategic people God used to shape that journey: Lea Hadden, Mark Corts, Gary Chapman, Don Mann, and Ken Smith. Im indebted to authors who mentored me from afar: Calvin Miller, Ken Gire, Philip Yancey, John Fischer, Frederick Buechner, and Brennan Manning. A writer never forgets the ones who affirmed his gifts early and urged him to put his thoughts in print: Maurice Thomas, Calvin Miller, and Bill Keith. That list of early and constant encouragers must also include my parents, Frances Presson and Richard Presson, who believed a third grader possessed a special gift with words and are convinced the Pulitzers are rigged because I dont have one.