I picked up Steve Arterburn’s book, Healing is a Choice, expecting to find some helpful insights into healing from past trauma. Instead, I found myself challenged to make some difficult choices. Arterburn explores ten big lies about healing, and challenges the reader with ten steps they can take toward healing. Many of the lies are things that are repeated by well-meaning friends and family and passed from one hurting person to another. In each chapter he explains one of the “big lies” and then exposes the Biblical truth and gives the reader some actions to take toward healing. A workbook section for individual or group study follows each chapter. He makes the point that healing isn’t something that happens, but something that takes work to achieve.
This book was not an easy read, and I didn’t get through it in one sitting. I chose to read it because four years ago my brother and a dear friend were heartlessly murdered for two dollars in cash and a thirteen year old Crown Victoria. I have been through counseling and grief support groups but the pain is deep and the journey through healing a long one. Some of the chapters were not difficult to read, as they were areas I had made progress in or because he kept referring to his divorce for examples and it just didn’t strike me as near as traumatic as what I have been through. However, when I got to the chapter on forgiveness I had to put the book down for a couple of months before I could pick it up again. If you read the first chapter or two and start to think the book doesn’t hold much value for you, as I did, then keep reading! At least a chapter or two will provides challenges for any individual on the journey towards healing. I have a feeling that if I had read the book two years ago I would have gotten more out of different chapters.
Just don’t expect an easy read. Expect a guide to assist you part of the way on an emotionally and spiritually difficult journey you must choose to embark upon to get to a healthier place in life.
I received this book for free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions and thoughts I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
