As I had mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Adrienne and I biked to Nisswa last week to hear Pat Bluth speak about her book, from Pain to Peace.

Anger will eat away at your soul. It can turn to deep depression and can be emotionally debilitating. Bitterness and unforgiveness are emotional suicides that inflict constant pain and steal joy. When you reach this depth of despair—when life seems like it will never be good again—how do you go on? How do you overcome a rage that burns like a volcano?

Pat Bluth was that volcano. After the death of her teenage daughter by a drunk driver, Pat Bluth wanted revenge when he was let off with a mere slap on the wrist. From Pain to Peace is her compelling story, tracing her journey from rage to forgiveness and healing.

From Pain to Peace is for everyone who has known pain or experienced loss. It will be welcomed by anyone who is looking for an example to follow, a proven path to find spiritual healing. It is a story of tragedy, but it is also a story of great joy. Pat discovered a joy and an intimacy with God she never knew possible. She came to experience his love and peace beyond measure.

I went to school with Pat’s daughter Tammy who had been killed by the drunk driver in 1985.  I was there the night of the accident and was one of the many teenagers who witnessed what happened.  Due to all this, I was anxious to hear Pat’s take on the book and her feelings after all these years.

Having been through my own tragedy of losing my mom and step dad in a head on collision in 1996 due to another driver crossing into their lane – this review takes on a bit of a personal feel for me.

I found From Pain to Peace to be brutally honest.  Pat pours out her heart in this book from the immense despair, to the extreme anger and hate that can fill your heart.  Having felt many of the emotions that Pat did, I could relate well with this book.  What Pat says through the healing process is all the things I wish I could have expressed.

Pats journey through the tough times into God’s grace and healing is reflected well in this book.  At times, her grief caught in my own throat as I remembered all to well what it felt like to be on that treadmill….constantly having to move forward, feeling if you stopped to breathe…. to think even…. you would slip off the end into a dark abyss.

Pat’s words in her chapter on mourning I found also to be right on.  The constantly being asked, “How are you?” Turns into a response that is automatic as we guard our heart against the real truth of how we are…. as if speaking it out loud would cause us to shatter into a million tiny pieces.  Pat’s response was, “Fine.”  I remember mine was, “I am o.k.”

Pat Bluth’s book is an incredible testimony of God’s healing.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has had a tragic loss of someone close to them.  I think you will find comfort in these pages.  Thank you Pat for sharing this healing book.

¹ O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
² You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
³ You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
⁵ You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.