Highly Favored?: Discovering Hope in the Shadows of Grief

Raising a beautiful family, ministering alongside her husband at a thriving church, and celebrating a redeemed marriage, Denette thought she knew what the favor of God looked like. That is, until she lost her son in a car accident just three weeks after stepping out into a new ministry. Suddenly nothing about her life felt "favored."

Her whole life, Denette had equated favor to victory and blessing, but perhaps God never promised that. Perhaps favor was about resiliency, strength, and purpose in the middle of tragedy, heartbreak, oppression, and pain. In processing her loss, Denette looked to Scripture for answers.

Highly Favored? is a vulnerable examination of eight famous figures of the Bible often deemed "favored" by God yet struck with unimaginable hardship, suffering, and tragedy. Denette provides a nuanced perspective on their experiences, woven together with her own stories, reflection, and confrontations with first-world theologies.

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This book is for those trying to find their faith in the midst of unimaginable grief, their loving God in the depths of adversity, and their closure in the unfair.

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"In Highly Favored?, Denette Schaer has contributed a moving and powerful work to the canon of bereavement literature. When the earth crumbles under our feet after devastating loss, we crawl towards the words of those who have gone before us and find in the best of them solid ground on which to stand again. Denette reminds us that "Hope is not handcuffed to our location or circumstances," and teaches us to take our pain, turn it into purpose, and to make it count. She shows us that God is close to the brokenhearted, and faithfully builds a theology of suffering that provides healing and help to the grieving." W. Lee Warren, MD, neurosurgeon and author of Hope Is the First Dose.