I know I’m far from the only one of us who had a bad 2016. Heck, I know I’m not the only GeekDad who had a bad 2016. This last year I ended up divorced and living as a single father for some very unpleasant reasons. (I promise this article isn’t about that.)
The point is, during some of the darker days of the last year, I was looking for anything that would raise my spirits and show me that I wasn’t alone in my troubles. It was around this time that a client of mine introduced me to Harry Grether and his book Lessons From an Imperfect World.
The book is full of stories, some of them highlighting the best and most beautiful moments in life, others sharing Harry’s own experiences with some of the hardest. Though all of them, however, is a vein of home. Even in his hardest moments, like his daughter’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent death, Harry keeps a persistent tone of optimism. This tone was something I desperately needed during those dark moments in my own life.
This book covers some really tough topics like cancer, suicide, grief, and even the challenges of forgiving someone who defies forgiveness. In a way, the troubles it covers are universal, but they’re approached through the particulars of his own experiences and stories. At some point, if we live long enough, we’ll all lose someone and we’ll all be tasked with forgiving someone who doesn’t think they’ve done anything wrong.
It’s in moments like these that we can feel hopeless and alone–like nobody could really understand just what we’re going through. It’s in moments like these that we need to hear truth and positivity from someone who has walked these roads before us and came out the other side. For me, Lessons From an Imperfect World was a way for me to take the fulfillment of that need with me anywhere I needed it.
Harry writes in the kind of accessible, easy-to-read style that one expects from a former teacher. He transitions from storytelling to teaching and back in a way that seems almost as if he’s the professor and we’ve all signed up for “Surviving Life’s Troubles 101.” Lessons From an Imperfect World is available on Amazon for $14.00 and in eBook format for $6.99 on all major eBook distributors.
Also, each purchase of his book helps to further Harry’s goal of donating 25,000 books (by donating 2/3 of each print run and selling the other 1/3 to pay for the next printing) to the people who need help and hope the most. He has already given away over 3,000 copies to cancer survivors, wounded veterans, and parents of children in hospitals, with plans to give away as many more as he can manage.
For more information on the book, visit www.harrygrether.com.
Please do not use GeekDad as a platform to promote Christian literature.