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Suffering--Book Brief



Paul Tripp is a faithful counselor and has served me and many of you through his conferences, books, video series, newsletters and booklets. He has written on the transition to middle age, love, sex, and money, raising teens and many other subjects.  If you are not familiar with him or his writing, I highly recommend him.

His latest book, Suffering, is the best thing he has written.
There are multiple contact points any reader will have with this book because suffering is universal.
We all experience it. We can’t escape it. Tripp, through his decade's long association with the Christian Counseling and Education
Foundation (CCEF) has counseled hundreds of sufferers. You will hear many of their stories in this book.
More importantly, you will hear how a skilled biblical counselor helps the sufferer frame her
experience in such a way that the truths of the Bible connect to the experience of the sufferer.

The chapters “The Awareness Trap”, The Fear Trap”, “The Envy Trap”, “The Denial Trap”,
“The Doubt Trap” and “The Discouragement Trap” are all worth twice the price you pay for the book.
In each chapter he addresses some aspect of each and the role they may be playing in our suffering.
He teases out how each “trap” may hinder us in everyday life.
But the real benefit is the gospel antidote to each.

The insight Tripp brings to bear in every chapter is in this quote: “You never just suffer the thing you are suffering, but you always also suffer the way you are suffering that thing.” (p 27)

What sets this book apart from Tripp’s other books is the autobiographical tone. Tripp has endured his own health struggles these last few years. And with these struggles has come a great deal of suffering. Part confession, part self-counseling, Tripp writes about what he has learned and what he thought he knew.

With a title like Suffering you may hesitate to pick up this book; you may be looking for something lighter, more of an escape. Fight that urge and add this to your reading list in 2019. This book is shot through with biblical truth and it is heavy with hope.

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