Rachael Newham

In a world which pushes us to move faster and work harder, carving out the space for a traditional quiet time every day can feel impossible, leaving people desperate to connect with God regularly but feeling as if they're failing. Beloved is Where We Begin encourages us to build a sustainable rhythm of grace with 52 extended reflections and blessings for people to read and ponder through the week. Using the liturgical year, the book gently guides the reader through the Christian seasons of easter, ordinary time, advent, Christmas and lent, encouraging them to tune into the rhythm - and hear the echo of God's voice calling us beloved whatever we are facing.

In a life full of highs and lows, choice and challenges, the words 'and yet' can change everything. We are surrounded by darkness and yet there is light. We feel we are lacking and yet God provides. We are broken and bruised and yet there is hope. In the depths of depression and plagued with suicidal thoughts, Rachael Newham never thought she'd find herself writing a book on joy. And yet, if her journey with mental health illness has taught her anything it is that true, deep, lasting joy can only be experienced when we allow ourselves to enter into lament and be honest about our pain before God. With warm understanding, in this lovely Lent book Rachael traces how Biblical writers used 'and yet' to bring together joy and lament and invites us to see them not as opposites, but two sides of the same coin. Drawing on her experiences with mental illness, she shows us how we can build a rhythm of both joy and lament into our lives both through the season of Lent and the rest of the church's year. With reflections split over six sections And Yet is the perfect daily Lent devotional, but its undated readings can be used for periods of prayerful reflection throughout the year. This is a beautiful Christian book on lament ideal for anyone looking for to better understand how the tradition of lament and joy work together, and how they can make them a part of their everyday spiritual formation. We may be living in dark circumstances - and yet with a few simple practices we can experience joy in every season.

It begins slowly, so slowly that I hardly notice at first. My chest tightens and my heart begins to beat a fraction faster. I try to draw breath, but instead I choke on oxygen I can’t inhale. As I realise that I can’t breathe, the panic wraps itself around my mind. I can’t make myself draw a breath. Rachael was aged just six when she had her first suicidal thought. Over the next decade, life would become increasingly fraught with depression and self-harm, and her outlook only bleaker. Before her eighteenth birthday, Rachael would twice try to take her own life. And yet amidst this darkness, a flicker of faith lived on. This is Rachael’s story of her journey into, and out of, the darkness of depression. With unflinching realism and complete honesty, she shows us what it looks like to live with mental illness, and how God can find us and rescue us even in the most desperate of places.