Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free

In this life, one thing is certain: we will all experience pain and suffering, and most of us experience some form of it daily. Best-selling author Tullian Tchividjian shares in Glorious Ruin, which takes a hard look at the book of Job and the nature of suffering, that it's not about getting over it, getting out of it, or getting better afterwards.

Suffering is truly about God's presence in our lives in the midst of the pain. We may not ever fully understand why God allows suffering to devastate our lives. We may not ever find the answers as to why, or discover how we'll dig ourselves out of the pit. But we don't need answers as much as we need Him. For the life of the believer, one thing is beautifully and abundantly true: God's chief concern in your suffering is to be with you and be Himself for you. In other words, our ruin may not ultimately spell our undoing. It may even spell our beginning. It certainly did for Him.

"Glorious Ruin is set apart by its depth of human understanding- the pastoral facts-on-the-ground of how people actually experience suffering-and by its depth of appropriation of the deepest Christian resources for helping people in their suffering. Tullian unmasks the unhelpful diagnoses that the world and the church often offer sufferers. But then Tullian offers a way forward! It is a deep and wide way, built upon the cross of Christ. There is another absolutely terrific thing about this book: it is filled to the brim with memorable stories and quotations. Glorious Ruin is a treasure chest from the 'red cross,' designed perfectly for persons living in the midst of pain."

Paul F. M. Zahl, author of Grace in Practice

"Tullian Tchividjian's Glorious Ruin is a gospel-driven tour de force. This book comes at you like a torrent of rain on a hot day. If you're suffering or feeling that dull kind of pain we all feel in our lives from time to time, you must read Glorious Ruin. Tullian shows how no matter what you're going through, God stands with you in your suffering and is everything you'll ever need. I couldn't recommend this book more highly!"

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church, Washington, DC, and New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker

"It is true that between the 'already' and the 'not yet,' suffering is the inescapable, universal human experience. But when you suffer, you don't just suffer what you are suffering, you suffer the way you are suffering. It is here that my friend Tullian makes his greatest contribution. In exposing our tendency to greet our suffering with self-righteous legalism and denial, he leaves us in our moment of pain with only one place to run, hide, and rest. No, we are not counseled here to run to the hope that we will increasingly learn suffering's lessons and suffer more nobly. Rather, we are faced with the mess that we all are, and we are again and again reminded of the grace of the Savior who perfectly suffered on our behalf. It is this grace alone that frees us from the burden of suffering being the place where we are called to prove our faith to ourselves, to others, and to God, and allows us in doubt, anger, fear, and dismay to run into the arms of our tender, patient, kind, and gracious Suffering Savior."

Paul Tripp, counselor and author of What Did You Expect?