The subtitle of this book is ‘Reflections of a Burnout Survivor’. The author and her husband are long time serving missionaries in Thailand. The book is based upon her journals written during the period of several years when she passed through what proved to be a transforming experience, though at the time it was a deep and desolate valley. She retraces her steps during that part of her life, writing in a personal, practical and spiritual way. Symptoms of burnout, panic disorder, depression are discussed, the causes of burnout are considered in the context of the authors life. She writes of those things the Lord spoke to her during that time, a liberating truth was that His intention was not to restore her but rather to transform her through this desolating experience. It is His strength being made perfect in our weakness that is written about here. That is part of the ‘old, old story,’ but it has fresh application as we read of God’s ways in the life of a busy missionary, engaged in faithful, diligent service. Those engaged in God’s service are not always aware of the pitfalls in to which they are in danger of falling, some of these are gently dealt with in this little book and the abiding sense received in the reading of it is of the great love and faithfulness of God to His own. This book is not heavy reading, but it is certainly helpful reading.
