Struck : One Christians Reflections On Encountering Death

Foreword By Scott Sauls

Part I: Affliction (Month 1)
1. Learning To See: Affliction And Faith
2. Struck: The Onset Of Affliction
3. The Sacramental Echo: Diagnosis
4. Trail Magic: Hospitalization And Adaptation
5. The Distance: The Space Between The Sick And The Well
6. The Letters: Putting A House In Order
7. Scowling At The Angel: Surgery And Waking Up

Part II: Recovery (Months 2-5)
8. Scar Tissue: Physical Healing And Resiliency
9. Monster In The Dark: Depression
10. Charlie And The Man In The Mask: The Sacred Work Of Rehabilitation
11. A Tornado In A Trailer Park: Anger And Ego

Part III: Lament (Months 6-22)
12. Seeing With Clearer Eyes: Recognizing The Need To Lament
13. Barbara: Returning To The Work Of Burden Bearing
14. A Song Of Lament: A Year Of Grappling With Suffering Before God

Part IV: Doxology (Months 23-24)
15. To Climb A Mountain: Finding A Way Forward
16. The Bird And The Boy: A Doxology Of Praise

Afterword: A Wife’s Response To Her Husband’s Affliction
Acknowledgments
Notes

Additional Info
When my doctor told me I was dying, I came alive. What happens when you come face to face with your mortality? When your body fails you, what happens to your faith? Russ Ramsey was struck by a bacterial infection that destroyed his mitral valve, sending him into heart failure and requiring urgent open-heart surgery. As he faced the possibility of death, he found himself awakened to new realities. In the critical days and months that followed, Ramsey came to see the world through the eyes of affliction. He grappled with fear, anger, depression, and loss, and yet he experienced grace through the suffering that filled him with a hope and hunger for the life to come. This profoundly eloquent memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. In the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity.