Waiting for God

Where Is God When Everything Falls Apart?


We all experience “dark nights of the soul”: periods of discouragement, difficulties, and despair that make us feel isolated and alone. Leading spiritual writer Cindy Crosby is no exception. “Several years ago,” she explains in ‘Waiting for Morning,’ “I found myself in the midst of a severe depression. For the first time in my well-ordered life, I felt as if things were out of control. I was angry with God, frustrated with my circumstances, disappointed with the way my life was turning out.”


She found the solution in an unlikely way: paying attention to God’s creation in suburban Chicago and her own backyard. “While learning about the natural world and its wonders, I learned about myself.”


“Waiting for Morning” tells how Cindy Crosby used the rhythms of nature to help her understand the rhythms of life—the ebbs and flows of the universe. When she built a small pond in her backyard, watched birds at the birdfeeder, pulled weeds in her garden, and hiked the paths of the tallgrass prairie near her home, Crosby also discovered metaphors for the spiritual life that can offer consolation and companionship to every reader who is also on the sometimes lonely and confusing journey of faith.


Through intensely honest narratives, Crosby explores the difficulties and desires that we all may experience in our spiritual walks: loss, acceptance, forgiveness, change, rest, doubt, community, discouragement, and learning to embrace mystery.


In time, she came to realize that both darkness and light—discouragement and joy—play a role in energizing her spiritual life. She learned to welcome the dark and the light together, and to embrace both—a skill that brought her peace in trying seasons, because she gained confidence that God is always with her.


“Waiting for Morning” can nourish hope, growth, and peace in souls that are overrun with conflict and questions. Celebrate the presence of God in the natural world—and in our lives too—as you share in Crosby’s poignant stories.