Don't Waste the Pain: Learning to Grow Through Suffering

by David Lyon, Linda Lyons Richardson, Jerry Jones

Would God use pain as an instrument in your spiritual formation?
A woman learns she has incurable ovarian cancer. Already depressed and questioning her place in life, she begins the excruciating journey of treatment. Can her battle become something beautiful?

A man learns his twelve-year-old son has aggressive childhood cancer. How could something so painful be happening to someone so precious? Would God choose to take his son’s life?

Searing pain. Abundant peace.

How can we, through pain, draw near to God and experience His loving care as never before? Read the intimate journals and letters of brother and sister David Lyons and Linda Lyons Richardson as they each walk through the challenges of potentially deadly illnesses. Discover through their pain and the pain you are dealing with how to find comfort and discover that God uses our pain as instruments to spiritual formation.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

About the author

David^^Lyon

Reviews

[Palesa Mbali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really encouraging read.

[Trinity Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really wonderful non fiction book. Linda in 2000 was diagnosed with stage-IIIC clear-cell ovarian cancer and in 2008 David’s twelve-year-old son Ian was diagnosed with stage-IV alveolar rhabdomyosarcaoma, a very rare cancer that kills 98 percent of its victims. This is a very precious story that tells of Linda and Ian’s lives and that of their families. Linda and David are brother and sister whom share so much.
The chapters are:
Welcome to OZ
Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants
Oxygen
The Ragged Edge of Faith
A Thin Place
Beauty From Ashes
But The Physicians
Praying In the Face of Pain
What if God Says No?
When Will it End?
Got Joy?
The Fellowship of Suffering
Whenever pain comes into our lives we should learn from it and grow. We shouldn’t let it keep us down and depress us. No one wants to live through pain or deal with it constantly, but if that happens how will we cope and how will we continue in life?
I love the chapter called A Thin Place. It is about the times that Heaven and Earth seem so close together. Like when you are somewhere and you feel God’s presence so close. So that makes only a thin place between Heaven and Earth.
The chapter called Got Joy is talking about when you are going through pain or experience a death of a loved one do you have Joy? Sure you will be sad, depressed and sorrowful, but through all of that you can still have joy with the Lord in your life. You may question God why did that or does that happen. Do welcomes our questions and wants us to see He is there loving us and helping us through.
This book is very insightful and helpful, but also we can have pain, suffering and heartaches, but still have peace and joy. God is always there for us.
You don’t have to have a death in the family or cancer to enjoy this book. Maybe you lost your job, have family problems or marriage problems all of these chapters will be a help to you. So I really recommend this book.

I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

[Laverne Ombadykow · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first began to read this book I was thinking ahead to the time when I would write this review. Each chapter had something that I wanted to include. Finally, I stopped thinking about the review and became totally absorbed in the book. The authors (David Lyons and Linda Lyons Richardson) were transparent and I often related to what they wrote. They wrote about thin places - those times when one is experiencing something that allows him/her to draw closer to God and there seems to be just a thin membrane between God and the person. They also wrote about the times when life is so hard that many, many believers are praying earnestly about the situation. There is a deep peace that God supplies during those times and it is so great that people who have been in that spot desire to be there again. The difficult thing is that one can only get there by going through unimaginable pain and misery. Linda wrote about a time when she was attending a Bible study and another woman was in remission from cancer and how she (Linda) had a brief period of jealousy. She was so open and honest about her thoughts and feelings and many of us know exactly what it feels like to be in that situation. David wrote about praying that his son, Ian, would live and working though thoughts and feeling when Ian died. He wrote about God's sovereignty and how we struggle with why God allows evil in our world. They wrote about joy and so much more. I'm so thankful for this book. It touched my heart.

[Michelle Weeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This shared the story of a brother who lost his 13-year-old son to cancer and a sister who was undergoing her own long battle with cancer. It was a transparent account of their journeys and had much helpful insight on how to go on in faith when in the midst of suffering.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read by a co-worker of my dad, who lost his son to cancer. Sad, but he and his sister (who has battled cancer for 10+ years) have a lot of great insights.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with chronic pain. These siblings offer wonderful insight, new perspectives, hope, and ways of finding joy when you least expect it. A must read.