Hope in a World Gone Mad
Someone special is missing. Your heart is broken.
At the same time, the world has turned upside down.
Everything is shaking.
What is going on? How do you handle this? What’s next?
Welcome to Hope in a World Gone Mad: Finding God in Grief, Fear, and Uncertainty.
This book is written as a conversation – a conversation of loss, grief, fear, longing, and hope.
Simply put, this book is about your heart.
Everyday life is a war. Each day we wake up to a fierce battle raging in our own hearts and in the world around us.
If you’re looking for an in-depth analysis of the grief process, this book isn’t it. This book is about discovering hope – real hope, forever hope – amid terrible grief in a world gone crazy. This book is about finding God in loss, fear, and uncertainty.
Hi. My name is Gary. I serve as an author, speaker, and grief specialist.
In childhood, I experienced sexual abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, isolation, and the deaths of family members and friends. My mom slipped away into mental illness, had several breakdowns, and attempted suicide. My dad died suddenly in front of me. All this occurred by the time I was 15.
As a teen, I made a choice to heal and grow through the loss and pain. That eventually led to an adult life of helping other hurting, grieving people heal and grow.
Life didn’t get any easier in adulthood. The losses kept coming – piling up over the years. Some of them were debilitating. Yet, I’m tremendously grateful for the healing and growth I’ve experienced along the way. I’m living proof that anyone can recover, adjust, and learn to use pain for good.
We’re all human. We all hurt. We all have hearts that can be broken. We all have longings that cry out from deep within us.
The most important thing about me is that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my life and my hope. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. Since one of my goals is to write from my heart to yours, my faith is all over these pages. If you’re of a different faith or claim no faith at all, I hope you’ll stick with me and open your heart to this conversation of hope.
I write from personal and professional experience. My vocational mix of grief specialist, theologian, and former missionary, pastor, and hospice chaplain all come into play. I pray that Hope in a World Gone Mad will bring you comfort, encouragement, and healing.
Most of all, I pray that you will come out of
this book with sure and certain hope.
Q&A with Gary
Q: Who is this book written for? Who might benefit from reading it?
Hopefully, anyone would benefit from reading Hope in a World Gone Mad. Having said that, the following groups of folks come to mind:
- Grieving hearts who are open to hearing how a relationship with God can make a difference in their life and grief process.
- Religious people who are longing for more in their spiritual life.
- Christians who are hurting and concerned about what’s happening to and around them.
- Christians who are concerned for those around them and looking for ways to share love and hope.
Q: Why did you write this book?
I’m deeply concerned by the loss, death, pain, and fear that I see around me.
People are grieving as never before. People are scared. Terrified. I see it in people’s eyes. I hear it in their words.
We’re experiencing loss upon loss, every day.
We need hope. I wrote this book to express love to the reader, as best I can. I believe that the ultimate source of hope and love is God Himself.
I wrote this book to share what I know and what I have – for that is all I can do. I have shared my heart – and hopefully that will connect with many other troubled hearts out there.
Q: If you could say only one thing to readers today, what would it be?
There is hope – sure and certain hope. You can have this hope. You matter more than you can possibly imagine.
Endorsements for Hope in a World Gone Mad
In Hope in a World Gone Mad, Gary invites his readers into a conversation on grief, God, and hope. The reader gets to listen in on a conversation, that honestly, we’ve all wanted to have regarding grief. So, grab a cup of coffee and listen in.
When I lost my husband, I questioned God and almost pushed Him away. This sensitive book helped me realize that Jesus walked with me every step (and even carried me). It is written differently in that it is almost a counseling conversation, which helped me to relate even more to my need!
Gary has provided a clear path from hurt to hope for a person working through any type of loss. Anyone who reads Gary’s book will appreciate the tenderness with which Gary moves us from despair to hope, from pain to peace, and from confusion to comfort. I highly recommend this book for the hurting and for those walking with others through the pain of loss.
Hope in a World Gone Mad is a different sort of book. Written as a personal conversation, Gary digs into the tough situation that grievers experience today – handling their own painful losses while dealing with an upside-down, fearful world. We need help and hope, and this book contains a lot of both.
