Where I End: A Story of Tragedy, Truth, and Rebellious Hope - Softcover

Clark, Katherine Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802416837 ISBN 13: 9780802416834

Publisher: Moody Publishers, 2018

Synopsis

“Those who are hidden in Jesus, though they suffer, will discover a more beautiful ending—or should I say beginning—than they ever could imagine.”

Katherine Clark was just an average wife and mother with two young children when she was in a tragic playground accident in late May 2009. A little boy playing on the jungle gym jumped and landed on Kate’s head, knocking her over and snapping her neck. Kate was paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors diagnosed her with quadriplegia and said she would never walk again.

This terrifying prognosis could have been the end of the story. But instead, God chose to work a profound miracle in Kate’s life and in the life of her family.

Where I End tells the incredible story. Kate describes how God’s presence carried her through the trying journey of re-learning to walk, both physically and spiritually. Throughout, she shares the deep theological truths that sustained her as she and her family traveled this difficult road.

For fans of Ann Voskamp, Sheldon Vanauken, and Joni Eareckson Tada, Where I End offers hope, encouragement, and a timely reminder of who Jesus is: God with us. In a reflective, literary style, Kate invites readers to see pain and suffering within the context of God’s loving, tender, powerful care—and there find hope.

About this title

About the Author

KATHERINE CLARK is wife to a gifted theologian and mom to two bright kids, all of whom bring merriment and humor to her days. A native of Detroit, Kate has had the privilege of living in several great cities, including Dallas, Toronto, Grand Rapids, and Chicago. Kate studied at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Dallas Theological Seminary. With a background in psychology, she has spent much of the last twenty years working and writing for a nationwide Christian radio and counseling ministry. When she's not writing, Kate enjoys spending time outdoors, cooking new recipes with her kids, and immersing herself in books. The Clark family currently resides in Wheaton, IL and worships together at Church of the Resurrection.

Review

Having lived with quadriplegia for more than fifty years, I've heard a great many stories about people who have suffered life-altering injuries. But some rise above the rest—perhaps it's the skill in storytelling, or how this person becomes a prescious friend with every chapter. It's how I feel about the book you hold in your hands. Kate Clark understands pain and loss like few do, but is able to share that in an impossibly winsome, personal way. I give Where I End my strong recommendation, and who knows? This Spirit-inspired story may even alter your life before you turn the last page.

Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center

 

Kate Clark is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. She is also one of the best writers and all that she is and all that she has been through is told so well in Where I End. Her story will inspire you to hang on to God when the unexpected tragedy strikes you. It will reveal how anyone can get through anything by trusting God, and doing whatever you can to move forward. There are tears from Kate’s story born out of loss and the joy of a new life found. Read this book. You will not be disappointed and you will not be the same when you are finished.

Steve Arterburn, founder of New Life Ministries and Women of Faith

 

Clark's heartbreaking, soul-enriching memoir candidly recounts how a playground accident altered her life.... Filled with clear-eyed explanations of how faith inspired her to hope, Clark's uplifting book is a testament to her tenacious spirit.

Publishers Weekly

 

Where I End shook me to the core and left me on my knees in worship. Many theologians can write sound doctrine, but few can write it as beautifully as Kate Clark has done. Her elegant prose, courageous vulnerability, spritely humor, and profound insights take us deep into a narrative of fearsome suffering and godly perseverance. Any Christian trying to find God needs to read this book. Clark's story reminds us that only when we reach our end do we truly discover where Jesus Christ begins.

Bryan M. Litfin, professor of Theology, Moody Bible Institute

 

Katherine Elizabeth Clark says, "I will not try to explain suffering." She stays true to her words. What she does instead is show us what suffering looks like, the kind of suffering that happens when something gets broken amid children on a playground, and that something is you. But in addition, she shows us what resilience looks like, what the Christian calls "hope." What this woman and wife and mother and daughter and friend discovers is that so much depends upon the Son of Man, hanging on a cross, embracing fully a great sadness, but also the beautiful grace of God.

John Blase, author of The Jubilee and Know When to Hold 'Em: The High Stakes Game of Fatherhood

 

A single tragic moment altered the course of Katherine Clark's life. Where I End is a story about that moment, but also about so much more. Clark writes with grace, depth, candor, and maturity about her difficult journey toward both healing and acceptance of her new life. Where I End offers powerful insight about the nature of discipleship for anyone who has found that their life has taken a turn into uncharted territory.

Michelle Van Loon, speaker, blogger, and author of the forthcoming Born to Wander: Recovering Our Pilgrim Identity

 

In what she calls her "horrible wonderful" story, Kate Clark refuses to sentimentalize suffering or to bring false closure to the potentially tragic event that changed hers and her family's lives forever. Instead, she offers the reader the unexpected: an uncliched account colored with sensory, lively writing laced with touches of humor and whimsy, girded with theology, and embedded in the hope that Christ, not circumstances, offers.

Rosalie de Rosset, professor of Communications and Literature, Moody Bible Institute

 

This book is for those who suffer and those who care for the suffering; in other words, this book is for all of us. Within a great constellation of Scripture, theologians, and storytellers, Clark gives language to what increases our suffering and what eases our suffering. Clark's gentle movement between her story of pain and her wisdom about that pain reminds us of God's movements of grace in the midst of suffering.

Nicole Mazzarella, author of This Heavy Silence, a Christy Award-winning novel, and winner of the  2006 Christianity Today Book Award for fiction

 

Kate's story stirs me as a mother and wife, a physician, and a Christian. While it is a story of healing, it is even more a story of a daily walk with Christ through suffering. Throughout the telling, she references other beloved stories and ultimately points us to the greatest story and, in doing so, gives us a glimpse of suffering imbued with beauty, dignity, and hope.

Martha McGraw, neurologist, Northwestern Medicine

About this edition

• Publisher: Moody Publishers
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0802416837
• ISBN 13: 9780802416834
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240