Even in Our Darkness

Reviews

Dr. Jack Deere’s brilliantly written memoir of his extraordinary life is a must-read for any person who has come from a dysfunctional family. Jack shows the wonderful possibility of peace passing understanding when traumatic circumstances would dictate otherwise.

Even in Our Darkness is filled with the raw pain, beauty, mystery, and grace that our hearts were meant for. There are no religious platitudes or ethereal ideas in these pages, just God’s grace and affection washing over a family time and time again through the highs and lowest of lows. I found the vulnerability and transparency of this book to be shocking, and a desire arose in me to live all the more in the light as God is in the light. This book will encourage you, and I pray it will warm your heart toward the affections that Christ has for you.

How do we make sense of the pain and evil in this world, and who is this good God who has allowed it? This powerful and poignant book goes a long way toward answering that for all of us. Written beautifully and harrowingly---and so grippingly that you won’t want to stop reading---this story is everyone’s story. If a few of us could be nearly as transparent and honest as Jack Deere is here, the light of Christ would shine far brighter in our culture, turning many hungry hearts toward himself.

I feel privileged to have witnessed this book being lived before it was written, as my mentor Jack Deere showed by example how to savor God’s friendship through our darkest days. This story inspires hope, not by sanitizing reality, but by artfully displaying a transcendent reality---the beauty of God even in our darkness.

I’ve known Jack Deere for nearly forty-five years. Or at least I thought I knew him. After reading his memoir, I became truly acquainted with my longtime friend for the first time. I cried. I gasped for air. I laughed. And I worshiped God. For Jack’s story is really a story about friendship with a God whose love and faithfulness are constant, whether we are on top of the mountain or walking through the valley of the shadow.

It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while, a gripping book comes along that is profoundly unmasked, unsettling, and unforgettable. I couldn’t put this down: This is one devastating, thought-provoking, and needful read that will change the landscape of your soul.

Many pastors write memoirs, but no pastors write memoirs like this. Jack Deere takes us into a world of “evangelical nobility” that is as pocked and flawed as any we Christians like to pretend we are above---and then plunges us into the torrents of a family disintegrating in the Class 5 rapids of a tragedy. Raw, gritty, and transparent, Jack’s writing rings with effervescent joy and searing pain. I read the last seventy-five pages with my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes. Even before I finished, I was making a list of friends to whom I plan to send this book. If I could, I’d send every person reading this a copy myself. It’s that good.

This is a gut-level story that leaves no illusion that life can be defined by man’s religion. I’ve known Jack Deere and his family for more than thirty years. I’ve watched and walked with him during some of the events covered. The story is real. God’s love always shines through the darkness.

We all have our times of darkness when our circumstances are difficult, with no idea of where God’s presence is. It is one of the most painful human experiences possible. Jack Deere speaks on a vulnerable, raw, and honest level about his own narrative and the darkness he has encountered, both around him and within his own soul. He ultimately points the reader to the God who is always there and who always sustains.

We fell in love with Jack Deere’s son Scott, never dreaming it would forge a friendship with Jack and Leesa. Jack’s raw and gritty exposé of his life demonstrates beauty in imperfection and love that is refined through hardship.