“God’s ultimate desire,” according to Graves, “is to use our pain and suffering, our angst and desperation, what the ancients and I call desert experiences, to form us into Christ’s image, to steel our relationship with him.” A moving account of growing up poor in a house that grappled with mental illness.
Endorsements
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To move through brokenness, we need to be both gently reflective and boldly courageous. Marlena Graves combines this unusual blend of necessary pursuits so that we don’t simply ‘get through it,’ but move into a transformed life of flourishing daily in the kingdom of God.
Jan Johnson, author of Invitation to the Jesus Life
Marlena Graves
Marlena Graves is a writer and adjunct professor. She has also worked at Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Marlena holds an MDiv from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, and is a graduate of the Renovaré Institute. She has been a bylined writer for Christianity Today, (in)courage, womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread, and she is also the author of A Beautiful Disaster and The Way Up Is Down. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Toledo, Ohio.
2014