FreeFall

Title: FreeFall
Author: Rhonda Robinson
Major Themes: Grief, Counseling, Christian Nonfiction, Christian Living, Faith
Synopsis: How are we to cope when the bottom suddenly falls out of our life?

FreeFall is not the type of book that greatly appeals to me. I don’t usually sign up for this kind of nonfiction, and, to be honest, even 3 ½ years after being suddenly plunged into shock and grief when my son died, a book about grief is one of the last things I want to touch. However, when the plea went out for more reviewers for this book I decided to help the author out. I’m not sorry I did.

Rhonda lost a teenage son, too. He was in an accident, and died at the scene. She found herself floundering to understand, to even keep on living and functioning after the accident—struggles I can identify with all too well. In this book, she shares what God taught her through the years following her loss. I found her story very inspiring—my copy is all marked up with passages that spoke to me!

Rhonda talks about how there is pain and sorrow all over. She talks about how it’s alright to cry, and how we need to let our grief transform us into what God wants us to be. One chapter that I could really identify with talked about our thoughts and how to capture them. That was a struggle I had to work through after my son’s death; five or six weeks after he died, we had a massive earthquake one midnight, and two weeks after that I endured a life-threatening medical problem of my own. For several weeks, I couldn’t sleep at night, until, with God’s help, I learned to take my thoughts captive. This chapter is well worth reading, for everyone who struggles with negative thoughts and fears.

The author shares many practical helps for allowing God to transform our lives. She also shares how God has provided for her family’s needs in many unexpected ways. The one thing I am in question about in FreeFall, however, is her recommendation for doing stream-of-consciousness writing. She says to do it to clear the way for hearing God’s voice. This is something I haven’t heard of before, and maybe it’s all right for Christians; I just find myself questioning it, and I’m not sure why. Other than this, I found the book to be solidly Biblical. One fun detail I came across? She mentioned driving a particular Amishman around—and I recognized the name! His brother used to be in the same church we were in.

I received a free copy of this book from JustRead Publicity Tours, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

WARNING: See main body of review.