Natalie Brenner’s This Undeserved Life is Available Today!
Everyone loves the hype and joy of “Release Day!” After all the months of writing, rewriting, and editing, it finally hits the book stores. This Undeserved Life is a book which already has great reviews and interest! It’s going to be a runaway best-seller!
Natalie Brenner is the author of This Undeserved Life. She is also a writer, speaker, mom, and photographer.
Originally from the two-stoplight town of Harrisburg, Oregon, Brenner gave up driving tractors and moved to Corvallis where she met her now-husband. Together, they helped to plant a church, built a youth ministry out of scratch, and fundraised their entire income. After this short season, their career paths shifted as did their home, and they moved to Portland, Oregon. She now writes and photographs for a living, raising two one-year-olds, and spurs others on to chase their dreams. Her heart beats for justice and Jesus, creating spaces for every fractured soul. Natalie is addicted to honesty and believes honesty is at the core of a full life.
More than sixty thousand people have visited Natalie’s rapidly growing blog, NatalieBrennerWrites.com, since January 2017. In addition, her work was featured in Adoption.com, Pregnant Chicken, Adopting.org, Shelley Skuster Writes, Today SHOW, Parents, and more. She is a lover of life and breather of grace and hopes always to love bigger than before.
This Undeserved Life
Is it okay to grieve? What about loss other than death? Can I be sad and still trust God?
Have you ever felt the walls of your life shatter, and”This must be Gods plan,” and “It was meant to be this way,” are often thrown around as encouragement, but often punctures deeper wounds?
Loss after loss, I felt these fix-it phrases were stripping my consent to grieve and acknowledge sorrow.
This Undeserved Life invites you to grieve your losses honestly. You will recognize loss and brokenness are not a part of Gods plan. If you choose to give loss the space it demands, you are not without faith but courageous.
This book is the story of how I surrendered my sorrow by grabbing ahold of it, leading me to unearth an immense amount of grace. My sorrow created in me an undeniable hunger for Jesus. I found Him sitting with me in my darkest nightmares. My prayer is to offer a voice to the unseen aches in your soul.
Getting to Know the Author
Natalie was kind enough to take the time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions:
My dad was not into church or Jesus. But, my mom was. Mom took me to church every single Sunday for as long as I can remember. She always sang songs about God and His love. Mom always talked about how He provides, always. We didn’t have a ton of excess growing up, we had reason to worry and doubt, but she always instilled that in me: God provides.
Connect with Natalie Brenner Here:
Facebook + Instagram + website
Beauty Is Born From Ashes
“This Undeserved Life” is the story of Natalie Brenner’s journey to understanding that although life can be messy and painful, God’s grace awaits us when we abandon our thirst for perfection. The story begins as Natalie attempts to shed the memories of a dysfunctional family life while falling in love with a handsome youth pastor.
My breath caught in my throat as she explained the diagnosis of infertility she’d received when endometriosis was diagnosed. My heart broke for her as I realized little has changed in the five decades since I received the same diagnosis. People react to despair on so many different levels. We tend to live in the dark shadows of our loss because no one has ever given us permission to grieve for our inability to be normal. Does God create us to accept our faults and the wounds others inflict on us in their callous responses to our loss?
“God did not give us brokenness, tragedy or trauma…He is faithful, even when we are not.” Natalie’s words are similar to the words I use when told the tragedies of my life were part of God’s plan. My response is always, “My God is a loving God. He did not create me to endure the abuses I suffered as a child or as an adult. It’s not His plan that I should spend my entire life suffering silently to cover up the injustices others have inflicted on me.”
This is a perfect book for anyone who has suffered loss and struggled with the grief that doesn’t seem to diminish as the days continue to slip by. Natalie teaches us it’s perfectly acceptable to ignore a culture which conditions us to hide the agony of the hardships we’ve faced. She reminds us that being sensitive toward others isn’t a failure; it’s a form of power many will never experience. This book teaches us that we have permission to feel the sadness through the joys in life. The raw truth too many fail to understand is that we should never allow shame and fear to rule our lives.
The scripture verses and workbook at the back of the book provide the beginning of your journey to acceptance of your grief and His healing grace. “Christ sits with us as we carry the cross of loss and hurt. Instead of erasing our scars, He validates our pain.”
Be Safe. Be Kind. Pass it on!
