'This memoir is achingly beautiful.' Nathan Tasker Can a Christian be anxious and still have faith? When nineteen-year-old Nikki lost her older brother, Greg, in a car accident, her stable world of faith and family became unsafe overnight. This was followed by a painful, decades-long journey with clinical anxiety and panic disorder-a journey that involved both seasons of trying to fight and flee from the pain-and, eventually, the beginnings of an expanded, reawakened faith. For the ever-increasing number of people suffering the pain of anxiety, for the weary, for those who fear they have failed themselves, others, and God; for strung-out believers constantly stretching and straining for a piece of peace; this book is a reminder that wherever we stand, Jesus-our older brother, our refuge, and our fellow sufferer-is ever near, beckoning us to come join him on the journey. The raw honesty, combined with eloquence, make this compelling reading. I could not put it down. Steve Baird, CEO International Justice Mission, Australia This book is for everyone whose post-2020 life looks like 'a crushed question mark'. In the days of global pandemic and gaping loneliness and loss, Nikki isn't afraid to look hard questions in the eye and offers an answer from the gut of her lifelong and unlikely friendship with anxiety. Lisa-Jo Baker, bestselling author of Never Unfriended and co-host of the Out of the Ordinary podcast. Blessedly free of trite theological and pastoral bromides, Nikki invites us to take refuge in the arms of a gracious and compassionate God, one who knows and numbers all our anxious tears. Rev Dr Ian Maddock, senior theology lecturer.

"Thorndike Press Striving Reader Collection."

Plunged into the icy waters of the Hudson...God spared Frederick Berretta's life in an instant -- and changed his heart forever. Frederick Berretta was an amateur pilot himself, so when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of geese and lost both engines, minutes after takeoff from Laguardia Airport on that fateful afternoon of January 15, 2009, he knew before most of his fellow passengers that something was seriously wrong. As the roar of the jets quieted and the aircraft ceased to climb, as the pilot guided the powerless plane towards a desperate crash landing and announced, "Brace for impact," Berretta fingered the prayer book in his pocket and tried to prepare himself for death. A multitude of thoughts flooded his mind all at once. He reminded himself that the odds of surviving a water landing were slim to none. He thought of his wife and his four children, and how they would miss him. He remembered he had just been to confession and to Mass, and he wondered if his soul would be ready to meet the Lord. And he knew he had to pray. "God, please be merciful to us, for the sake of your Son," he whispered. "Please spare us. I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Mother of God, please pray for us." At that very instant, Berretta felt a "push" or "nudge" on his conscience; a state of awareness he'd never before experienced; and a keen realization that he had to do something. But what? Then God's voice sounded strong and clear in the depths of his soul: Are you going to accept My will for your life? For Frederick Berretta, the events of that fateful January day were the crystallizing moment of a lifetime of conversion. This story tells how he lost his childhood faith and as a young adult embraced a selfish, worldly life, how he suffered through family turmoil and the death of a child, and how by God's grace he slowly returned to the Church, humbled and grateful. God used the "Miracle on the Hudson" to confirm him in his faith and set him on fire to share it with others. Flight of Faith is the inspiring true story of how God works in our lives in simple and extraordinary ways. Read more at the Flight of Faith website.

In this remarkable tale of hope and survival, Hannah Luce tells how, as the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash, she came to grips with her faith: “a calamitous, fascinating memoir, written with surprising spiritual sophistication” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). On May 11, 2012, a small plane carrying five young adults, en route to a Christian youth rally, crashed in a Kansas field, skidding 200 yards before hitting a tree and bursting into flames. Only two survived the crash: ex-marine Austin Anderson, who would die the next morning from extensive burns, and his friend Hannah Luce, the daughter of Teen Mania founder and influential youth minister Ron Luce. This is Hannah’s story. In Fields of Grace, Hannah details the investigation of her faith, her coming-of-age as the dutiful daughter of Evangelical royalty, her decision to join her father’s ministry outreach to teens, and her miraculous survival and recovery following the accident. It also serves as a tribute and testament to the lives of the dear friends who perished in the catastrophic plane crash and reveals how their memory continues to inspire all that she does. Here is the “riveting personal account” (Booklist) of a girl who grew up as the daughter of one of the most influential evangelical leaders of our time, who questioned her early religious convictions somewhere along the way and who, from the embers of that doomed plane ride, finally found her faith.

Our brains are doing our best to help us out, but they can be real assholes sometimes. Sometimes it seems like your own brain is out to get you—melting down in the middle of the grocery store, picking fights with your date, getting you addicted to something, or shutting down completely at the worst possible moments. You already told your brain firmly that it isn't good to do these things. But your brain has a mind of its own. That's where this book comes in. With humor, patience, and lots of swearing, Dr. Faith shows you the science behind what's going on in your skull and talks you through the process of retraining your brain to respond appropriately to the non-emergencies of everyday life. If you're working to deal with old traumas, or if you just want to have a more measured and chill response to situations you face all the time, this book can help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and get your life and brain back.Here's an excerpt from the book:Knowing what’s going on up in your brain is HUGE. So much of how we interact with the world around us is a completely normal response when we take into account our past experiences and how our brains work. • Freaking the fuck out • Avoiding important shit we need to take care of • Feeling pissed off all the time • Being a dick to people we care about • Putting shit in our bodies that we know isn’t good for us • Doing shit we know is dumb or pointlessNone of these things are fucking helpful. But they all make sense.Your brain has adapted to the circumstances in your life and started doing things to protect you, bless it. It’s not TRYING to fuck you over (even though it totally is, at times).As we navigate the world, nasty shit happens. The brain stores info about the nasty shit to try to avoid it in the future. Sometimes these responses are helpful. Sometimes the responses become a bigger problem than the actual problem was. It’s called a trauma reaction.And even if you aren’t dealing with a specific trauma? Adaptive coping strategies, bad habits, and funky behaviors all wire in similar ways. And research is showing that these issues are actually some of the easier ones to treat in therapy … if we address what’s really going on, rather than just the symptoms.

Through the mysteries and myths of Christmas and Easter, families balance the values of receiving and giving, of growth and sacrifice. Each aspect of the Santa myth, from his slide down a chimney to his big red suit, plays a part in a child's imagination. Through their offerings of milk and cookies and their letter writing, children bring their relationship to Santa into developing attitudes toward giving and receiving gifts. The Easter Bunny story, with its ritual egg hunt and baskets of brightly colored candy, is explored in terms of life and its possibility of growth. In these examples, Clark shows how children play an active role in constructing family rituals and cultural reality, since their willingness to make the stories their own helps to renew the traditions.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones' hard work in the difficult War and post-War years became the preparation for his great influence in London in the fifties and sixties. But these pages trace his ministry into wider circles - to the Universities, to Europe, the United States, South Africa and ultimately, in his books, to the whole world.