Unexpected

March 26, 2018
In this book of inspirational stories, Caine (Unashamed), founder of the A21 Campaign, an organization that fights human trafficking, encourages readers to overcome fear of the unknown and accept that God has a plan for them. She begins with the memory of her 50th birthday party, when, on her way home from celebrating, she received word that her mother had died. Caine recounts how this intersection of joy and sorrow became an invitation to trust God, writing that this coincidence wouldn’t have happened if God didn’t have a plan for her. In many revealing stories, she demonstrates how faith in God’s power helped her recover from disappointment and tragedy. She writes in depth about her cancer diagnosis and how she fought against negative thinking (“Cancer was a condition I had,” she writes, “not who I was”). Caine describes how unexpected occurrences provoke fear, disappointment, betrayal, and disillusionment that can throw believers off of the path toward grace. Caine’s ability to wrestle through unsavory circumstances and substitute faith for fear will encourage both Christian and non-Christian readers.