Part 1: Even There
Part 2: Worn Out
Part 3: Keeping Watch
Part 4: Even the Darkness
Acknowledgments
Recommended Resources
List of Vincent van Gogh Works
Sharon Garlough Brown is a spiritual director, speaker, and cofounder of Abiding Way Ministries, providing spiritual formation retreats and resources. She is the author of the bestselling Sensible Shoes Series, which includes spiritual fiction novels Sensible Shoes, Two Steps Forward, Barefoot, An Extra Mile, and their study guides. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Sharon has served on the pastoral staff of congregations in Scotland, Oklahoma, England, and most recently in West Michigan, where she copastored with her husband, Jack, for many years.
"This novel skillfully tackles the dark topics of depression and
suicide as well as the often misguided way Christians treat mental
illness. It asks the hard questions such as how one should support
a loved one who deals with this disease and what to do when our
best intentions are ineffective in providing help and solace.
Beautiful and haunting, Shades of Light is a heart-wrenching and
necessary read that ultimately offers hope."
*Elizabeth Musser, author of The Long Highway Home*
"Sharon Garlough Brown uses the vulnerable, sensitive,
compassionate, and creative character of Wren to sympathetically
immerse the reader into her valiant struggles of coping with
depression and anxiety. With Wren's deep insights into the life of
Vincent van Gogh, we are invited to participate in the illuminating
potential of visio divina to experience the comforting aspects of
Vincent's art. Sharon succeeds in revealing what hides beneath the
surface of the two wounded and kindred spirits—Wren and
Vincent—namely, their compassion and their spiritual and
intellectual depth. This is a book that compels us to be more
compassionate and less judgmental."
*Carol A. Berry, lecturer, author of Learning from Henri Nouwen and
Vincent van Gogh: A Portrait of the Compassionate Life*
"Sharon Garlough Brown's Shades of Light is a rare and beautiful
study in contrasts. Faith and doubt, control and surrender,
acceptance and resistance—all are woven into the darks and lights
of a story so real and provoking that you will find yourself
aching, wondering, hoping, and even praying alongside her
luminescent characters. The struggles of depression and anxiety, of
parenting and being parented, of loving and losing aren't tied up
in easy answers or simple narratives, but are lifted up for what
they are: the beloved brokenness where God's light and love get
in."
*Tara Owens, author of Embracing the Body*
"Christians have not done well with the subject of mental illness.
There is a great deal of stigma around the therapy process, calling
people's struggles 'a lack of faith' or 'sin in their life.' This
marvelous book courageously unveils the reality of psychological
struggle even among people of faith, pointing us to the Jesus who
keeps company with us in everything that is hard—a companion in
sorrow. Thank you, Sharon, for this work that I predict will be
healing to many."
*James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful God*
"In Shades of Light, Sharon Garlough Brown draws us once again into
stories of faith amid suffering and hope even in the darkness.
Christians face mental illness like everyone else, but too often
they wrestle alone and ashamed. As we enter Wren's world of anxiety
and depression, we are invited to join her muse Vincent van Gogh
and the characters from the Sensible Shoes series as her
'companions in sorrow.' Sharon's unflinching and compassionate
portrayal of that sacred fellowship reveals Christ himself is with
us on the journey, sharing our tears and holding us in love."
*Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, author of Glittering Vices*
"Shades of Light is a beautiful, moving story filled with Sharon
Garlough Brown's deep, spiritual insights. As a fan of artist
Vincent van Gogh, I loved how the main characters, Wren and her
mother, Jamie, drew from the faith of this 'companion in sorrow' as
they faced the challenges of Wren's depression. Brown offers no pat
answers to the questions raised by mental illness, but shows how
joy and suffering are held in delicate balance through faith in the
'Man of Sorrows,' who is 'sorrowful but always rejoicing.' This is
a powerful book, triumphant with hope."
*Lynn Austin, author of Legacy of Mercy*
"What a consolation this novel will be for those who have known the
darkness! Too often church people approach mental illness with
fear, simplistic theology, and useless spiritual bromides. By
telling Wren's story, Sharon Garlough Brown instead gently welcomes
us into a companionship of sorrow where we can glimpse the dark
beauties of grace. There's bracing truth here about the
stubbornness of mental illness, the spiritual and practical
implications, the helpless ache of those who love but can't fix.
But there's also beauty of soul, which emerges for readers through
Wren's sensitive dwelling in the paintings and writings of Vincent
van Gogh. And as we learn to dwell in Wren's world, to enter that
circle of sorrow, we find at the center of it the compassionate,
Gethsemane presence of Christ."
*Debra Rienstra, professor of English at Calvin College, author of
So Much More: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality*
"Look for cameos by some of your favorite characters from the
Sensible Shoes series in this quiet, honest story about the
hallowing of the soul in its journey with Jesus through suffering.
For anyone who has faced the darkness of depression or walked that
road with a loved one, this is a beautiful, much-needed Christian
vision of mental illness as both clinical (therefore treatable) and
spiritual."
*Sarah Arthur, Christianity Today fiction judge, author of A Light
So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle*
"Brown's evocative prose . . . is both heartbreaking and
enthralling. This emotionally harrowing story will appeal to fans
of Karen Kingsbury."
*Publishers Weekly*
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