Set includes: novel and study guide.
Wren Crawford is a social worker who finds herself overwhelmed with the troubles of the world. Her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression are starting to overcome her. She finds solace in art, spiritual formation, and pastoral care along with traditional therapeutic interventions. But a complicated relationship from her past also threatens to undo her progress.
Fans of Sharon Brown's bestselling Sensible Shoes Series will be delighted to discover some old friends along the way. As Wren seeks healing in this beautifully written novel, readers are invited to move beyond pat answers and shallow theology into an experience of hope and presence that illuminates even the darkness.
As you read the book, use the accompanying six-week study guide as an opportunity to reflect on how the experiences of the characters in the novel resonate with your own experience. Including daily Scripture readings, reflection questions, and simple spiritual practices like creative art and visio divina, the study guide offers a healing balm for those in the midst of difficult seasons.
"Insightful, penetrating, and heartbreaking, Shades of Light takes the reader into the world of mental illness through the eyes of Wren, hospitalized for clinical depression and panic attacks, and her mother, Jamie, who worries and loves from a distance. As Wren begins to heal through studying the life and works of the artist Vincent van Gogh, she finds a companion in sorrow. The sufferings of Christ as he journeys to the cross are also an important part of her healing.
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.
Readers will also appreciate the appearances of the much-loved characters from the Sensible Shoes series. Beautiful and haunting, Shades of Light is a heart-wrenching and necessary read that ultimately offers hope."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Brown's evocative prose . . . is both heartbreaking and enthralling. This emotionally harrowing story will appeal to fans of Karen Kingsbury."
