Book Spotlight (and a Giveaway!): Help, I’m Drowning by Sally Clarkson

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Help, I’m Drowning by Sally Clarkson, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! Keep reading for an excerpt!

HELP, I’M DROWNING
Author: Sally Clarkson
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Release Date: September 14, 2021
Genre: Christian Women’s Spiritual Growth

Life is filled with unexpected storms that take you by surprise.

In these storms of life, it’s easy to feel helpless, exhausted, afraid . . . and alone. We can feel like victims to circumstances out of our control.

Beloved author Sally Clarkson understands deeply. Through almost seven decades of life, she has found herself tossed about in overwhelming life storms through many different seasons.

In Help, I’m Drowning, Sally identifies the challenges that took her by surprise and then leads you to the wisdom she gathered from her experiences. Finding grace to walk through the darkness and hope to make it through will give you the comfort and encouragement you need in knowing you are not alone. Though there are no easy, formulaic answers that apply to every situation, Sally leads us to the One who is with us and will see us through.

Sally found the anchors that held her steady in the midst of every storm, and she wants to help you find your anchors too. She invites you into her own personal story of anchoring well, and then–with honesty, grit, and her trademark wisdom–she will help you heal and move forward with courage and strength.

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“I just don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I will make it through.”

Have you ever felt like that? I have, many times. And yet, somehow, I am still alive and moving forward, one step at a time.

As I look back on the decades of my life, one thing I know is that storms are a natural part of life. Storms happen. Some seasons of life seem more storm-ridden than others. In nature, there are snowstorms, sandstorms, rainstorms, firestorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and monsoons. In life, there are emotional storms, spiritual storms, physical storms, psychological storms, financial storms, marriage storms, child storms . . . you get the picture.

If I had been more prepared for the storms, they would not have surprised me and thrown me off my feet. To know the truth about something is to prepare to deal with the reality of that truth. I experienced so much anguish, doubt, fear, bitterness, and insecurity because I did not know life would be so hard, so often.

Preparing for storms can help eliminate some of the emotional upheaval that comes when we are taken by surprise.

I would love to be able to say, “If you just follow these five steps, you will not experience the pressure, fear, or danger of storms in your life.” I really wish I could take away the pain, horrible consequences, and unjust suffering I see in the lives of so many. Life is a sort of obstacle course. Yet, I can’t pretend the problems away or find an instant solution.

There is no formula in this world to make suffering, injustice, evil, difficulty, and the consequences of living with immature and unloving people disappear. We all have unanswered questions like “Why did this terrible thing happen to me?” Even Jesus himself suffered a violent death at the hands of wicked people. Consequently, to give a flippant, prescribed answer to people’s pain is not biblical.

So how do we move through the unanswerable, overwhelming darkness and pain common to all in life? How do we accept our own failures and learn to heal and move on?

We are usually all looking for quick fixes, and often, instead of waiting for God’s answer or God’s source of relief, we try in our own efforts to shorten the process by taking matters into our own hands. Sometimes we mess things up even further. We certainly do not want to stay in the

middle of the storms of life and wait for them to be over. And yet, often, that is just what we have to do—wait them out.

As I began to pray about this book and to try to organize my thoughts, I realized that part of me really just wants everything to be okay. I avoid conflict like the plague. I would love to promise myself and my children that their lives will be without difficulty, conflict, or pain. If only I could protect them . . . But I can’t control life, I can’t make it behave, and I know from experience that there will continue to be storms in all of our lives. Until we deal with this reality, we will fight and rail against all challenges, relationship problems, and disappointed expectations, and feel we have lost our way.

As my children were growing up, I recognized that loving them well meant telling them about life’s battles. I was not called to remove them from their own storms, or protect

them from the stress, but to walk with them through the storms. Showing them how to be a faithful sailor is a gift that prepared them for their adult life. Teaching them these realities has allowed them to go into their worlds strong. We see this struggle and surprise at the storm in the lives of the disciples when they found themselves in an unexpected tempest so violent they feared for their lives.

Excerpt from Help, I’m Drowning by Sally Clarkson provided by Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Copyright Sept. 3, 2021. Used by permission.

Photo Credit: © Steve Hixon