Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
1 Cancer Makes a House Call 15
2 Stupid Strong 23
3 When Theology Has No Handhold 31
4 I Will Live until I Die 41
5 Allee, Alice, All Come Free 49
6 Love in the Bending Low 55
7 A Hard, Forgetting Place 63
8 Difficult Beauty 69
9 A Stack of Gratitude Stones 77
10 Laughter and Faith Hold Hands 85
11 Remember the Sound of Rain 93
12 The Narrow Place 101
13 The Final Solo 109
14 Sunrise, Sunset 117
15 The Bigger Shadow 127
16 Not Half of Two 135
17 When Anxious Thoughts Multiply 143
18 The Dance of Surrender 153
19 A Mystery Bigger than the Unanswerable 159
20 The Most Brave 167
21 Finding God in Community 173
22 The Bully in the Mirror 181
23 When Foundations Shake 189
24 The Gethsemane Hour 197
25 An Ordinary Life 203
26 Chocolate Rain 211
27 The Better Offer 215
28 No More Good-Byes 219
Note to the Reader 229
Questions for Reflection 231
Scriptures for Desert Sojourners 241
Notes 247