Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God

“Tim Challies has taken us into his confidence by writing with such self-searching honesty. It is a painful pleasure to be invited into these sacred moments of grief and to be helped by the reminder that God is too kind ever to be cruel and too wise ever to make a mistake. ”

“In the winter of his sorrow, Tim Challies writes that he wants to be found to be a good steward of what God entrusted him, not in the life, but in the death of his son. And surely this tender book is evidence of that stewardship. As he expresses his agonies and questions and aims, he does the work of discipling all who walk the path of losing someone they love to the anguish of death. In the pages of this book, grieving people will find companionship, insight, and genuine encouragement for the journey. ”

“If ever there was a book Tim Challies needed to write, it’s this one. And it’s a book I needed to read. For when afflictions multiply, turning chronic and debilitating, the weary heart longs for some fresh balm to soothe the pain. I found that healing salve in Seasons of Sorrow. With heart-shredding honesty, my friend Tim offers robust, Spirit-blessed comfort—the kind that shores up your soul and makes you stronger to endure. Within these pages, you will do more than enter Tim’s story of enormous loss; you will come out on the other side having gained a softer heart and a renewed courage to persevere through your own dark seasons of affliction. ”

“I always love reading anything Tim Challies writes, but Seasons of Sorrowcut straight to my soul. I read it within a few weeks of the unexpected deaths of two close friends and while my wife struggles bravely with stage 4 cancer. Tim’s heartfelt pain and Christ-centered perspective spoke to both my heart and my head. He writes with honesty, authenticity, and depth. There is no pretense here, no airbrushing death or minimizing it. Yet it is a hopeful book that embraces the blood-bought promises of God that one day he will reverse the curse and swallow up death forever. I highly recommend Seasons of Sorrowto anyone who has experienced heart-crushing loss”

“If you have lost a loved one to death, as everyone has, or if you have buried a child, as many have, Tim Challies is your friend. Your brother. Your lifeline. In this poignant collection of reflections, you will grieve with Tim and Aileen and their precious family. Their faith and courage will bless you with an infusion of the same. And their hopeful perspective will help carry you until that day when, as Tim writes, every sorrow will be “comforted in the place where all tears are dried.” ”

“Seasons of Sorrowis a beautiful book. Reading it is like holding a precious gift, like standing on holy ground. The death of a child is a stark, shocking, and sad reminder that we do live in a broken, fallen, and groaning world. But it is in these very moments—when the unexpected and unwanted things enter our door, with the darkness of pain, grief, and questions unanswered—that the gorgeous truths of the gospel shine the brightest. Seasons of Sorrowwill bring you to tears, but through those tears you will see your Lord and the majesty of his grace in ways you may have never seen before.”

“In Seasons of Sorrow, Tim Challies bares the heart of an earthly father, utterly crushed by the sudden death of his beloved son, Nick. But as Tim writes out his faithful agony, he also takes us to the faithful joy that can only come from the resurrected Christ. Believers need this book, and only Tim Challies could have written it. I am so thankful that Nick was a student at Boyce College, and his influence as a young Christian was remarkable. Through this book, his remarkable life, joined to his father’s God-honoring grief, stands as a testimony to the redeeming love of our heavenly Father.”

“This book is brilliant, not because of Tim Challies’s eloquence, but because of his tears! Many of us have benefited immensely from the author’s blogs. However, in this book, Tim takes us even deeper as he wrestles with the brutal ugliness of death during one whole year of personal sorrow after the loss of his son Nick. The buoyancy of faith that shines from every page often left me teary-eyed, thanking God for his grace to his people during their darkest times. What priceless grace!”