Why I Believe: A Psychologist’s Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith by Dr. Henry Cloud Book Review

In Why I Believe, Dr. Henry Cloud is a personal book about part of his life mixed with what he believes on suffering, miracles, science, and faith. He shared in the book at the young age of ten years old. He was at a camp in North Carolina and he felt a sharp pain in his soul. It was a lightly Christian camp and he felt a calling to the Creator. He explained an illustration of a judge condemning us for our sins and crimes. Jesus stands up telling the judge to spare us and He would instead take our fines. This is to convey how Jesus tried for all of our sins and mistakes and He paid in on the cross. This is the first time he felt the presence of God and His love for him. He shared his up bring and how his parents displayed their faith in God and how this influenced him. He also shared how at four years old, he was sitting in Sunday school when he leg began to hurt badly. He would be screaming in pain for hours and he has to be hospitalized. They did lots of test and blood work. He admitted to feeling very afraid and alone. They considered amputating his leg. He explained how his mother heard a voice that told her to leave now and take him to another hospital. His new doctor knew right what the disease was and it affected his hip and he would have to remain in a wheelchair. He then realized that God intervened on his behave with his parents faith. He felt very different from others and he struggled with being normal.

When he was better, he decided to jump into sports especially golf. He played through the pain for two years until he had to give it up at age 20. At this time, he also gotten broken up. He struggled with depression and feeling like a complete washout. He lost his life purpose and started searching for a new path. He recalls being in his dorm room and being drawn to open his Bible and the page opened until Matthew 6:33 and how seeking first the kingdom of God and how all things will be added to you. He started searching actively for God and he turned to Him. He explained how people came into his life and helped him strengthen his faith. This helped to dramatically change his life with the help of mentors and friends. The depression finally went away. He was instructed by God to trust him and to follow him this led him into going after psychology. 

One of the chapters of course discussed what the greatest obstacle of all is. This how does a good God allow evil to exist and suffering. He like most have experienced lost and witnessed others and heard others who had gone through horrible events. He shared how everything is related to death and a separation from God. God gave us freedom from the beginning and we chose a different tree. We lost our disconnect from our Creator but still we had a path through the crucifixion that would save the world. If we want to have relationship with Christ, we have a chance to seek Him. He clarified how there is no answer on his side as to why we have to go through things. We have to have faith that Jesus knows better than we humanly do. Even when Jesus was dying on the cross, He asked His own dad why he had forsaken Him. He even explored cognitive thinking and psychology and how we can look at suffering in this way to see a different approach. 

I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is wondering what a psychologist thinks about science, faith, suffering, miracles, and much more. I immensely loved how he covered the entire spectrum of faith, doubts, and what his own personal beliefs are. I thought he did a wonderful job is going through details about what psychology has taught him and influenced his Christian beliefs. I really enjoyed hearing from a psychologist approach to faith and suffering. I appreciated how transparent he was in reading about his thought and learning more about his background and how he came in know Christ and how it changed and grew over the years. One of my favorite sections was on that he shared how psychology aligned with things that are also addressed in the Bible and this enclosed an entire list that breaks it down for readers. This book will assist readers into growing deeper in their questions and faith. 

I received this book free from Worthy Publishing for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Believe-Psychologists-Thoughts-Suffering/dp/154600341X/

Praying for Emily: The Faith, Science, and Miracles that Saved Our Daughter by Tom, Kari, and Emily Whitehead with Danelle Morton Book Review

In Praying for Emily, Tom, Kari, and Emily Whitehead has written a personal autobiography about the journey that they had to face as a family. A little background on Emily’s parents is Tom works for a power company and Kari works as a registered dietitian and research project manager. They open up sharing about how they got married and how they struggled having a child. They eventually were blessed with a little girl. They described Emily’s personality as someone who loves to laugh, has high energy, loved being outdoors, and a prankster. In the book, Tom also opened up about a few health scares and how he was diagnosed in his twenties with Crohn’s disease and how it affected his family. Sadly, this wasn’t the only health scare that was about to come to his family.

 

 

 

They begin the book by explaining that Pam, Kari’s mother was watching Emily during the day and she noticed some bruises on her arms and legs. Emily was a high energetic child so they didn’t think much of it at first. Later that night, Kari noticed that she had a total of 21 bruises on her body. She also realized at around this time Emily’s gums was bleeding when she brushed. She explained all of her symptoms to her sister, Brenda who is a nurse and she told them to get her checked out because all of this was signs of leukemia. Emily was still running around and playing outside on her swing. Tom and Kari thought maybe she was still fine other than the bruises she appeared fine. Later in the night, Emily woke up screaming that something was wrong with her legs and they tried a warm bath and she screamed that it was too hot. They took her to her doctor and then the ER for blood work and it was confirmed that Emily’s blood cells are 90% leukemia cells. Throughout the book, he walked readers through the different hospital visits and stays and what Emily experienced and faced along the way. Kari also started a blog to get people to pray for Emily and to keep everyone updated along the way. They also shared how the chemo failed and the cancer come back a second time. Then later in the book, they revealed how Emily received a miracle by being the first child to try an experimental treatment plan that included something called, CAR-T cell therapy. She eventually recovered and was cancer free. This in turn lead to documentaries and meeting President Obama and them starting the Emily Whitehead Foundation.  

 

 

I would recommend this inspiration book to anyone who is experiencing cancer or they know someone that is. This is the first time that I have heard of Emily’s story and is very eye opening in learning about CAR-T cell therapy and how this started. I immensely loved how Tom also shared about how he had different whispers when Emily was going through her cancer treatments and sometimes it would be like a voice and flashes of things that would be to come. He has a cool story about a kid in the elevator and how it gave him hope and then later he learned more about the boy. I also liked how Tom shared how he was more the faith believing one and how this influenced his family during the difficult season. I also appreciated how they shared the science too and how Kari loved the facts and how this helped them during their journey. In reading the book, I liked how they explained the challenges and what they learned along the way during Emily’s cancer journey. 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.” 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Praying for Emily, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Praying-Emily-Science-Miracles-Daughter/dp/1546034110