When the Journey Hurts
Finding Meaning in Suffering for Heart, Mind, and Soul
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected Apr 14, 2026
-
- $30.99
-
- Pre-Order
-
- $30.99
Publisher Description
Transform Your Suffering with Tools from Theology, Psychology, and Spiritual Formation
We don't like pain.
So, we find creative ways to go around it. We try to ignore, minimize, or deny our suffering, but we're still left hurting. The twisting and defiling work of sin on this world is overwhelming and shatters our assumptions about ourselves and our place in the world. And yet, the path forward is through suffering. Our afflictions present an opportunity to encounter God and allow him to redeem our suffering.
Drawing on six years of research, When the Journey Hurts untangles common misconceptions about suffering, instead helping you find meaning in it. The authors integrate theology, psychology, and spiritual formation to provide actionable steps and tools that teach you how to suffer well in relationship with God and others.
This book introduces seven key practices to help you uncover meaning in your suffering, equipping you to engage with suffering in a healthy, faithful way:
Identifying with Christ's sufferingLamentSurrenderForgivenessGratitudeMemento mori (remembering our mortality)Weaving our story of suffering into God's story
These practices are supported by both theological insights and psychological research, providing a unique approach to navigating suffering. Rather than diminishing the weight of your pain, this book is designed to help you transform suffering into an opportunity for spiritual growth and deeper connection with God. With When the Journey Hurts, you'll find that your pain can lead you closer to Jesus.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By challenging "our ordinary ways of understanding the world and our place in it," suffering provides Christians with an opportunity to reevaluate and strengthen their faith, according to this meditative guide. Kapic (You're Only Human), a theology professor at Covenant College, teams up with Hall and McMartin, psychology and theology professors, respectively, at Biola University, to argue that crises destroy one's "assumptions" about the world, freeing up the mind to discard "unhelpful or untrue beliefs" and formulate a "better way of understanding the world and our place in it." Drawing from research and personal experience—including Hall's struggle with breast cancer—the authors explain how suffering brings people closer to God as they bump up against their own fallibility, reevaluate priorities, and build empathy toward others. They also detail how readers can grow during such periods by praying regularly and working to forgive oneself and others for past transgressions. The authors differentiate their advice from similar religious guides with their methodical approach and robust research, which includes interviews with nearly 100 Christian cancer survivors. It adds up to an insightful testament to the unexpected ways faith can be born from struggle.
