In case your tradition does not celebrate it, we are currently in the season of Lent. Lent, originally meat as the time new Christians studied before being baptized on Easter, is also a season of lament, of grief, of heartache. 

During the 40 day of Lent, Christians confess their sin, their brokenness, and how much God is needed to bring new creation and hope into the world. We spend our time reflecting on how we can grow closer to God while also acknowledging that God's plan in 

Christ Jesus far outweighs anything we can do on earth. Yet, we continue to pray, to read our bible, to strive to grow with God as best the Holy Spirit beckons us to do so.

"When Skies Aren't Blue" is the perfect resource to utilize during these dark days of Lent, as we lament over what has happened and what is yet to come. This personal story, written by Dr. Andy Laurie (MD and Pastor), reminds us that life isn't always sunshine and rainbows. When life gets hard, when it gets difficult to wake up and step out of bed, when we feel like giving in; this book is a reminder that we must press on towards Christ Jesus and not lose hope. 

I have to admit, at first, I was skeptical. It seemed like another self-help book that will tell me everything I need to know about growing in God during the hard times. Yet, as I dived into the chapters, I learned not only about the writer's personal story, but saw how much he wants his community and the world to understand God during the difficult moments of life as much as he has learned how to do. 

When one becomes ill, when one experiences sudden loss, when one has pain that makes no sense; it is easy to ask Why do good things happen to bad people? After all, we live life in the best way we can, helping others, sharing God's love, etc. Yet, we receive that illness diagnosis. Our loved ones die. There are sinful, horrible acts committed by different types of people in this world.

Dr. Laurie explores this question and more as he explains his viewpoints on why we should continue to focus on God's love, find hope, and look for blue sky while we are experiencing the dark gray days the world throws at us. 

Each chapter opens with his personal story, what he learned about himself and God related to that story, and a prescription for us to utilize when we find skies that aren't blue ourselves.

Before going into great detail of his own story, Dr. Laurie first focuses on the attacks of sin and Satan in this world. In the Lutheran denomination, we don't talk about Satan in the ways that some of the evangelical churches do. While it is Satan that attacks, it is also the sin of the world that separates us from God's love. Sin entered in the world via the choices of Adam and Eve. Nothing we can do makes that sin go away, and nothing we do makes God's love go away either. 

It's two fold-we are both sinner and saint. We live in this world of sin, distracted from God, but we also are baptized children of God, marked with the cross of Christ forever.

For Dr. Laurie, he writes about how Satan grabs us from God's grip, challenging us to not trust in God and to give into our grief and lament. No matter how you view Satan, it's obvious that sin exists in this world. 

Sin is anything that distracts us and separates us from God. Thus, if sin is the evil stuff of illness and injustice, then yea, sure, it most definitely takes our viewpoint away from God.

As Andy goes further into his writing, he writes about facing the good and bad of life, and how we choose to respond to them. Each prescription reminds us that we have a choice to follow Christ, to focus on God, and to leave behind the self-pity and shame. 

That doesn't mean that we don't wallow in the lament and grief we experience. It is okay to do so, but at some point, we must figure out how to live within it while still trusting in God. 

For Andy, it was figuring out his purpose and finding his new identity when he could no longer be a doctor or a pastor in the ways that he once did. He encourages us to find out our new identities within the set of limitations that we now have.

Dr. Laurie also reminds us that we need a community of believers, of friends, and family that can help not only support us, but also challenge us when we are firmly planted within that grief and lament we experience. Those people can help us see God differently and point us in directions that we might not have realized otherwise. 

Those directions might lead us in smaller accomplishments than we once had, but we must hold onto those  as "victories" so that we can continue to grow and move forward in our relationships with God. When we wallow in the past, we don't get to see how we are growing in different ways. 

Finally, it's easy to find the blue sky when things go well, or when we experience those high moments. But, how quickly we forget the mountaintops when we are back in the valley. Dr. Laruei encourages us to find ways to put reminders in our daily life of those blessings, those mountaintop experiences, so that when we feel stuck, we can see how God did, in fact, pull us out from those dark days. He calls it "battling the God amnesia". 

Focusing on God's greatness through biblical stories, author Andy Laurie, MD writes a wonderful book that can be used almost like a devotional, helping Christians experience God's grace and love during lament and grief. I love his stories and the way he incorporates his pastoral and medical experiences into his writing. 

I do wish that he focused a tad bit more on grief and lament. It's easy to say that we need to get out of it quickly, but sometimes resting in it is just as important for seeing God as well. While noted in step 2, I also wish more time was discussed relating to our personal choices and those things beyond our control, along with how sin wraps it all up so that we have trouble distinguishing God's actions at work. 

As a church leader who has experience several congregational member deaths this year, who laments over the division created by the current political climate, and even who daily listens to people talk about how difficult their lives are; I like how this book creates tangible steps to grow with God. It's not pie-in-the-sky theories, but actual ways that we can learn to trust God when Skies Aren't Blue.  Facing the what-if's are easier when we have tangible ways to do so. 

I encourage you to purchase "When Skies Aren't Blue". Your skies might be blue right now, but one day, they won't be, and having this as a resource to help you stay out of the darkness will be beneficial. It would also make a great study with your spouse, friends, book club, or church group as well. 

Purchase When Skies Aren't Blue by Andy Laurie, MD. 

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About the Author: Dr. Andy Laurie is a board-certified radiologist who received his medical degree from UC San Diego. He did his post graduate residency at the University of Arizona. He practiced emergency radiology for nearly thirty years before illness caused him to recently retire. In addition, he has been a pastor at The Bridge Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona, for nearly twenty years. For much of this time, he has courageously battled a devastating disease of the autonomic nervous system. Dr. Laurie and his wife, Cyndi, were married in 1991 after he graduated from medical school. They have four grown children and make their home in Tucson with their beloved dogs.