Grace places

Once in my life I did win a national contest. To help publicize a new book on mentoring, a Christian publisher had sponsored a contest seeking essays about “women of influence” in someone’s life. When I first saw the ad, I thought, “Oh, what’s the use.” But I was compelled to tell the story of an unusual woman of influence in my life, a retired nurse in my church who took this rookie newspaper reporter aka young chick under her devout wing. She loved on me and encouraged me in my growing faith through simple potluck meals in her very humble little home.

Just before the contest deadline in spring 2000, I sent off my article about “Grandma G,” my unlikely mentor. A few months later, as I sat writing fillers for my part-time job at the newspaper, I got a call from the sponsoring publisher. Out of hundreds of entries, they decided mine was the winner. My prize would be a weekend trip to Indianapolis to meet the book’s author and be honored at the large arena “Heritage Keepers” women’s event where she would speak. Oh yes, the weekend would include “the works” at a day spa. The trip was for two—for me and my “mentor.” One problem: she had died years ago. Could I take my daughter, then 16, in her stead?

And so Inga and I flew to Indianapolis and spent time with international Christian speaker Carol Kent, an author whose works I had read and enjoyed, and whose book Becoming a Woman of Influence prompted the contest. Carol and her husband were models of graciousness in helping Inga and me feel welcome. But I sensed something amiss as I watched her greet professional friends and share tears and emotional hugs. Finally, as we left, I dared to ask. I learned their son (and only child), a military academy graduate who wanted to honor Christ in his occupation, sat in prison on charges of murdering his wife’s ex-husband, who was suspected of abusing his little daughters.

Carol’s writing and speaking took a major turn after that heart-breaking event, which resulted in her son being sentenced to life without possibility of parole in a Florida prison. From this life-shattering sorrow came three books to uphold and encourage people who face unthinkable circumstances and are struggling to trust God to help them through it. They have included When I Lay My Isaac Down, A New Kind of Normal, and the just-released Between a Rock and a Grace Place. This newest book encourages those who suffer to look for the God-things that emerge from dark places—like faith, mercy, contentment, thanksgiving, favor, joy, freedom, and adventure. Though the book shares their journey with their son’s incarceration, it also includes stories of others who have found themselves on the dark and despairing side of life. It’s lived-through, cried-through, and trusted-through responses to the life circumstances you would have never chosen.

I’d encourage you to read this book. Request it from your public library so that it can be ordered and put on the shelves for others. Share it with those who may seem ready for its liberating message. I’d venture that many of us know someone with a desperate outcome from their choices. Some remote branches of my family tree, grafted in by marriage, include those who suffer greatly because of a family member’s crime. One man is serving his sentence for murder; another has recently been charged with the same crime.

If you know of someone who is incarcerated and don’t know what to do to help that person’s family, consider learning about a non-profit ministry Carol began to help inmates and their families: www.SpeakUp ForHope.org.

When I entered that essay contest a decade ago, I had no idea how it would expand my world. The manicure is long gone and I’d never had another massage since that contest win. But it touched my life in a good way. I pray regularly for Carol and her husband, who have not shrunk back from this sorrow, but embraced it to bring glory to God.