Every Bitter Thing is Sweet

 

A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb,
But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
-Proverbs 27:7

"God was our story-the whole story, the only story."  In her book, Every Bitter Thing is Sweet, Sara Hagarty spilled her story, her faith, her deferred hope, and her heart so beautifully that I found myself whispering, "yes", again and again.  I nodded at the words on the page, I underlined, I highlighted, I starred and drew exclamation marks. 

The bitter parts of author Sara Hagerty's story, the unmet expectations, the loss, the struggle, the ways we wound each other, speak into the bitter parts of my own.    With true transparency, she shares her family's grief of infertility, the pain of growing together in marriage, and the labor pains that come with adoption. 

The battles in her life were relentless, but her God was too.  Though He allowed her family to walk through fire, His pursuit was relentless as well.   He spoke and He showed mercy, tenderly touching her chin and lifting her eyes up and onto Him.  He allowed her to become a hungry, interrupted soul, so that she might experience the kinds of sweetness that come only with the hardest kinds of growth.  Her story of faith reminds us that, "there is a dance to be danced in the valleys".   

I need to remember that God’s answer is not to lift me out of “the crisis of the moment” but to speak His word into it, and over it. I was made to find joy in relating to Him across the whole span of my day.

 

I loved this book.  She had me at Proverbs 27:7.  I closed the back cover touched and in awe of how God teaches the same lessons to different people through similar, yet beautifully unique circumstances.  Hagerty inspired me and challenged my pursuit of the One who redeems the hard stuff and turns it into sweetness. 

 

This is a hard story that you'll relate to even if you've never experienced infertility or adoption.  You'll be moved to take a second look at life's burdens.  You might even become more willing to accept the tougher gifts God might be offering you. 

And if you are an adoptive family?  By all means, read this book.  God has something to say to you, I promise.  Let these quotes regarding her adoption of four children from Uganda convince you...

It wasn't my effort and His.  It was His effort and my weak yes.  It was partnership done His way. 

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God would use adoption to Father me. 

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But this wasn't just about God healing them.  I would be the recipient of His work as well. The pain and hurdles of my most stunning quest-adoption-were also parts of my heart knowing hunger.  If hunger won out, I just might receive new perspective.  I just might grow. 

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The truth is nothing about adoption is safe.  We sign papers and write checks and make timelines as if any part of this process is secure, and then we're shocked when the battle waged in the heavens over these children's lives encompasses the natural.  The fields of the fatherless are war stained. 

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As with any calling, we dip our toes in the water of yes and hope to God that this is the biggest yes we'll have to utter, the biggest move our hearts will have to make with such trust, only to find ourselves submerged years later. 

 Yes, Sara Hagerty, yes.  Well done, I'll be following your work. 



**I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.