Being Well When We're Ill: Wholeness and Hope in Spite of Infirmity

Marva J. Dawn serves as theologian and educator with Christians Equipped for Ministry of Vancouver, Washington. Five of her books have been honored with a place on the Academy of Parish Clergy annual list of their top ten books, most recently in 2007. She is known throughout the world for her best-selling devotional and theological books and for her popular lectures on worship, ministry, and church and family life.

Marva Dawn has an insider's view of the many spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical difficulties encountered by people with chronic illness and disabilities. She knows from experience how to nurture hope in spite of infirmity.

Filled with insight and practical help, each chapter of Being Well When We're Ill focuses on one particular kind of struggle, such as worry, guilt, the loss of meaning, or the loss of confidence and trust that God is present and personally loving. Each chapter details one or more appropriate "finds"---spiritual resources, emotional supports, intellectual answers, or practical solutions---that enable a person with infirmities to persevere through them and to be well in spite of them.

For each issue she explores, such as loss of dreams, loneliness, physical pain, depression, ingratitude, side effects and more, Dawn includes discussions of biblical texts---not only texts that help lament losses but texts that bring wholeness. Readers will find themselves companioned in their sufferings and encouraged with new ways to surmount them.

It is possible to be ill or live with a disability and still be well, according to theologian, educator and speaker Dawn. She should know. As a person with a variety of serious physical challenges, and who has grappled with emotional and bodily issues as well as theological and biblical questions, Dawn is a powerful guide for those who want to be well in spite of their medical conditions. While she has written about her disabilities in previous books, this one is a complete and helpful analysis of the implications of physical challenges, along with concrete spiritual, theological, and practical suggestions for dealing with them. Each chapter names one particular aspect of illness, such as loneliness, boredom, physical pain, regrets, bitterness or meaninglessness, and offers strategies for coping with them without sugar-coating or belittling the real struggles people face. Dawn also looks past the individual to offer a global perspective, making suggestions for addressing governments and health systems that further oppress those who are ill. Stories from the author's and other experiences offer readers the sense of being graciously companioned along a very difficult road. (June) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.