This book tells of my long and brutal journey. From married to divorced. From a seminary professor and pastor to a disgraced, bitter truck driver in the oil fields of Texas. From a man at war with God to a child redeemed by grace.
“There comes a time in almost everyone’s life when they feel like Adam must have felt the first time he watched the sun set. All the beauty and warmth of light morph into night. It doesn’t happen instantly. It’s not like the flip of a light switch. First there’s fear as the sun crawls toward the horizon, then bewilderment as it vanishes, then shock as the world we once knew envelops us with darkness.
In this darkness, we grope about for objects once familiar to us. We look for mementoes of a former life bathed in light. But every direction we pivot, we see our world blanketed by losses we cannot even begin to accept, much less understand. We’re paralyzed, crouching amidst the ruins of the life we once had. And we fear the rays of hope will never reappear.
Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you’re there right now, in that place void of light. Ten years ago, I watched that sun vanish below the horizon. I felt the bite of fear, the bewilderment, the shock. Then I fell face-first into a world of darkness….”
So begins my new book, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul, which releases today from Eerdmans. In the Foreword, Mark Galli, Editor in Chief of Christianity Today, writes, “In this little book, Chad has a singular purpose. He wants us to get one thing straight. Before we talk about anything else—especially before we talk about ourselves, what we think or do—he wants us to be absolutely clear about what God has done for us in Christ. He wants there to be no mistaking that, even in the darkest of times, we are not our own but belong to another, to one who has our best interests at heart and will never let us go.”
This book tells of my long and brutal journey. From married to divorced. From a seminary professor and pastor to a disgraced, bitter truck driver in the oil fields of Texas. From a man at war with God to a child redeemed by grace. And in my story, I welcome yours as well. Stories of rebellion and loss, shame and pain, tragedy and sorrow. All our stories merge with the story of the one who entered our lives, bore our sin, and brings us from darkness to light.
Christ found me in the cab of a truck, in the backcountry of the Texas panhandle, amidst the ruins of a life I had destroyed. He finds us where we are. He carries us, heals us, loves us back to life. I pray that you discover, in this book, the Christ who is a friend of sinners. The Christ who welcomes all of us prodigals home with great rejoicing.
Night Driving can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Christian Book Distributors
Eerdmans
Thank you, all of you, for your unceasing encouragement and prayers.
