Why do our lives sometime go in unexpected and even unpleasant directions? The apostle Paul in Romans 5:1-5 provides a major insight into dealing with this life question when he reflects upon the life sequence of suffering, endurance, character, hope, hope not disappointing us, and joy. This book discusses all this and is also a wonderful testimony to the role of the Christian faith in helping anyone to recover from tough life events. Healing, Hope, and Joy Faith-Based Reflections after a Traumatic Brain Injury By Wayne Beatty AuthorHouse Copyright © 2011 Wayne Beatty All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4634-4348-1 Contents Chapter One: Suffering to Healing, Hope and Joy............................1My Terrible Injury.........................................................7Our Wondrous Christian Gospel..............................................12Chapter Two: Why Must We Struggle?.........................................13Endure Trials—and Go Beyond!.........................................25Chapter Three: Suffering...................................................28A Question Addressed to Jesus..............................................31Get Personally Involved!...................................................34The Wondrous Promises of Faith and of Hope.................................38Chapter Four: Endurance....................................................50Compassion, Shared Grief, and Love.........................................56Chapter Five: Character....................................................66"Weeping May Tarry ... but Joy Comes ..."..................................72The First Christian Martyr.................................................83Chapter Six: The Journey of Kings and the Gospel...........................88The Pride Line.............................................................94Finished?..................................................................98Jesus' Resurrection........................................................104Chapter Seven: Why Does Life Turn Out the Way It Does?.....................107Parallel Universes.........................................................110Moving Beyond Spiritually..................................................116Hard Usage.................................................................118Chapter Eight: Hope........................................................125Some Basic Elements of the Gospel..........................................132Chapter Nine: Hope Does Not Disappoint Us..................................144Hope and Faith.............................................................149God's Strength Is with Us..................................................154Chapter Ten: God Is With Us................................................160We Are All Fragile People..................................................167Chapter Eleven: Our Road to Emmaus.........................................173The Ascension of Jesus.....................................................179Chapter Twelve: The Wonder of It All.......................................182Imprisoned by Sunshine.....................................................186 Chapter One Suffering to Healing, Hope and Joy Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope—and hope does not disappoint us. This is the theme of my book, and this is a dynamic and triumphant sequence for our Christian lives. It is powerful and real. The Apostle Paul laid out for us this wondrous sequence in Romans 5:1-5, and this biblical passage provides a wondrous vision for moving through life—through suffering, through endurance, through character, through hope, through hope not disappointing us, and through joy. This sequence in our Christian experiences provides healing for us even in tough times, it provides the strength to endure challenging times, it provides hope in the midst of all of life, and it enables joy. Our personal lives may be difficult at times, with genuine suffering and disappointments, but our lives may also become joyful, victorious, and marvelously healing over time. Sometimes the joy and the victory emerge even in the midst of the suffering. God sent God's Son, Jesus Christ, to live among us, to experience the tough times as well as the good times, to teach us, and to triumph over life and death in a wonderful and victorious way. This is wonderful. Romans 5:1-5 is a strong passage in which the Apostle Paul proclaimed a remarkable and dynamic process of life and of faith. The text is as follows: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not