Out of a Far Country and The Edge of Grace

This unique book, Out of a Far Country, shows the redeeming love of God as He came to two individuals. The sub-ttles are "A Gay Son's Journey to God", and "A Broken Mother's Search for Hope." It was written by both Christopher and Angela Yuan.

Angela, the mother, was an Atheist and her husband had a nominal Catholic background, so they raised their boys outside the church. Their marriage was in trouble and their family was falling apart when Angela sought to end her life. When God intervened, she came to know Him personally. After leading her husband to Jesus, both of them prayed earnestly for their son, Christopher.

Christopher was a gay man, a drug user and seller, who had no time for God. Angela prayed that God would do whatever was necessary to bring her son into a relationship with Him. Christopher was at his lowest when the police raided his apartment, found drugs, and he was arrested and imprisoned.

When man is at his lowest, he has nowhere to look but up. And this is where Christopher found himself. A Bible happened to be in his cell and he began to read. Then he began to understand what his mother had been saying to him. He came to realize that his imprisonment led to his salvation and to ridding his body from the drugs that were so prominent in his life. His conversion and life change were dramatic, as God led him out of the mess of his life.

Not all gay men and women have such an outstanding conversion and life change as Christopher Yuan did. This book was dramatic and inspiring. I recommend it to people who want to see the drastic changes God can make when a person yields his or her life to Him. I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah for my honest review on Blogging for Books.

Another book dealing with this subject was one I downloaded recently on my Kindle--The Edge of Grace. It is about Caryn and David, a brother and sister who grew up in a close family. Their parents had died, Caryn had lost her husband, and the two of them, plus Caryn's little son, were all that was left of their family.

When David told Caryn that he was gay, she was devastated. She withdrew from him and her son missed his uncle very much. Then when Caryn discovered David was living with another man, she tried to keep other people from finding out about it.

The only thing I have against the book is that Caryn agonizes with her thoughts and it gets pretty wordy. However, I wanted to find out what happened, so I continued reading. Of course, they went through some hard times getting there, which makes the book worthwhile. But grace won out as Caryn came to accept her brother for who he was.

If such a situation comes to you and your family, you will need help in dealing with it and sorting out your feelings. I would recommend both these books to help in that regard. Many times, with such heavy burdens in our lives, all we have is God's wonderful grace to lead us through to understanding.