oh hey. today's a big day.

a look inside the book and how to be a book doula

It’s here, it’s here! Today is the day!

Even if He Doesn’t is available everywhere books are sold (and from what I’m told, quite a few libraries as well). I started writing this book almost two years ago and it’s really surreal that it’s here, you can hold it, and read it, and it will hopefully be exactly the book you need.

As I say in the introduction, “I am more familiar than I’d like to be with pain and loss. But it would be foolish to consider myself an expert on suffering. I’m not. I simply have suffered.”

I didn’t write a book that will give you the answers to your pain. I didn’t even try. But it will bear witness to it and offer you hope, whatever it is you’re going through. It will make you feel normal if the things that have happened to you have challenged your faith. You won’t feel like you’re on a “slippery slope” threatening your eternity. In fact, my hope is that you’ll stop believing in the slippery slope all together and see that faith is a process, a journey, a non threatening one, and something that Christ offers his presence in, regardless of what you’re wrestling with or how angry you might be at him.

I’ve never felt like my faith is anything to be applauded, but it is honest, pragmatic, and genuine. I hope that the stories I tell in this book invite you into curiosity and give you permission to relax into God’s love for you.

There are no platitudes. No hot takes. No simplistic theologies. No “truth spoken in love” (that’s is usually just an excuse to be a bully.)

I hope you write all over it, dog ear it, underline, highlight, and use it so much you have to replace it. I’ve already seen some swear words in the margins of early readers’ copies and you know what — I love it.

I’ve poured every bit of myself into the writing, crafting, structuring, and releasing of this book and now it’s here. It’s yours. My story is in the world and it feels simultaneously like the end of an era and the beginning of a whole new one.

It’s been a joy to write it for you and it fills me with so much pride to see it in your hands, your homes, and your bookshelves.

And if you’re thinking, “I can’t read this book. I’m still living in the ‘he didn’t.”, here’s what a few people living in the didn’t have said,

“My testimony is an "even if He doesn't... and He didn't" kind of testimony…. From the first chapter, Kristen pulled me into her world and did not let go. Maybe it was her authenticity, or maybe it was just the relatability of Kristen's story that knit my heart to her and her family. Regardless, I devoured this book, honored to have been given a pre-leased audio and digital copy as part of her launch team.
- early reader review on goodreads

“This book is so healing. I put off reading it for a while because everything I went through was still so raw, but I wish I had read it sooner.”
- early reader review on goodreads

“When I opened the box and the words “Even if Doesn’t” sat there, staring me in the face, in two seconds flat my mind accelerated to all the still-empty shelves that were supposed to hold the monuments to answered prayers I have prayed. I closed the box and said out loud, “Nope. Not today.” …. If you are starting off reading this feeling like God has abandoned you because He didn’t do something you begged of Him… I have a feeling that you will close this book, look up, and see that He’s been sitting right next to you all along…  Even if He didn’t.”

- Carlos Whittaker, speaker and author of How to Human and To Kill a Spider

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In each chapter of Even if He Doesn’t, I take a bad theological take on suffering, what I call a “distortion” in the book and I show you a better way of thinking about it through my personal stories and through Scripture. The “distortions” are things like :

+ Suffering can always be explained
+ Questioning what I believe about God will cause my faith to become fragile.
+ I need to keep those who are struggling with their faith at a distance.
+ Suffering is proof that I am in the will of God.

and we shift those to the better, truer, more integrated way of thinking :

+ I might not know the reason I'm suffering, but I know God is present with me in it.
+ When crisis reveals my incomplete theology, my questions are an invitation to know God better.
+Engaging with someone’s pain and doubts might cost me something, but I am called and equipped to love them, nurture them, and lead them to the safety of the Good Shepherd.
+ Jesus came to bear my suffering for me, not reward me with it for a job well done.

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HOW TO BE A BOOK DOULA THIS WEEK :

Promoting and marketing book is my least favorite thing in the world. It makes me feel icky and I’ve tried so hard to make this book release season feel natural and not gimmicky or salesy. You have helped by commenting, sharing, and engaging with my posts, offering feedback, and celebrating every step of this journey. So I feel icky asking for anything else, but I know that sometimes, it’s nice when someone tells you exactly what they need, so that’s what I’ll do.

To help birth this baby, you can …

Buy the book - or request it at your local bookstore or library (my launch team has had incredible success doing this!)

Post a review - amazon, goodreads, target, barnes and noble, anywhere and every where! Reviews help so, so much.

Add it to your reading or TBR list on goodreads

Take a picture with the book and share on social media or repost one of my posts

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Release week is the most important week of a book’s life cycle and I’m so grateful for anything you can do to help spread the word and get this book into more hands.

So grateful for each and every one of you!!

Happy Birthday, Even if He Doesn’t!