A Peek At My Bookshelf: Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet by Sara Hagerty

About the Book:

In the age of fingertip access to answers and a limitless supply of ambitions, where do we find the God who was birthed in dirt and straw?

Sara Hagerty found him when life stopped working for her. She found him when she was a young adult mired in spiritual busyness and when she was a new bride with doubts about whether her fledgling marriage would survive. She found him alone in the night as she cradled her longing for babies who did not come. She found him as she kissed the faces of children on another continent who had lived years without a mommy’s touch.

In Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet, Hagerty masterfully draws from the narrative of her life to craft a mosaic of a God who leans into broken stories. Here readers see a God who is present in every changing circumstance. Most significantly, they see a God who is present in every unchanging circumstance as well.

Whatever lost expectations readers are facing—in family, career, singleness, or marriage—Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet will bring them closer to a God who longs for them to know him more. What does it look like to know God’s nearness when life breaks? What does it mean to receive his life when earthly life remains barren? How can God turn the bitterness of unmet desire into new flavors of joy?

With exquisite storytelling and reflection, Hagerty brings readers back to hope, back to healing, back to a place that God is holding for them alone—a place where the unseen is more real than what the eye can perceive. A place where every bitter thing is sweet.

My Thoughts:

Oh, how I love this book! Sara Hagerty has a way with words that is just pure mmmm...you can taste what she's saying, feel it wrap you up in a warm blanket, smell the essence of her phrasing..."Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet" is a multisensory experience.

As a believer and follower of Jesus, Sara had expectations and dreams for her life. I've often felt the same way Sara did: belief plus obedience equals a good life, which is defined by getting what I want. And since what I want isn't bad, unhealthy or immoral, God should deliver.

But we've learned that God doesn't always operate the way we think He should. And an unfulfilled dream or wish doesn't mean He's fallen down on the job. Instead, it means He's put great thought and care into our lives and He has the sweetest gifts waiting for us...

...it's just sometimes we have to learn to savor the bitter before we can truly taste the sweet. This Sara learned as she struggled in a new marriage and waited for babies to come. The beauty of Sara's book is that it isn't merely her story.

She has a way of making it our story. We're all longing for something, waiting impatiently for our "reward" for faithfully following Jesus. Sara shows us how God's math is better than our own one plus one equals two.

No....the Father's math is One plus one equals the unimaginable. So if you've ever felt God didn't deliver on His promises, read "Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet" and allow God, through Sara, to help change your perspective.

My thanks to my friends at Zondervan Publishing for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Highly Recommended.
Happy Reading!

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