Why is this happening to me? Why has God abandoned me? Is He a good God?

Most Christians, even the most faithful, have wrestled with these questions at some point in their lives. These seemingly unanswered questions can cause doubt about God’s plan and His providence. But if we look to the men and women from Scripture who have paved the way of our faith, we discover endless answers.

In looking at the lives and circumstances of some of the most beloved and the not-so-known characters of the Bible, we learn how to walk through the inevitable moments that unravel us all. I share my own personal unraveling experiences in light of the relevant verses from Scripture, offering my transparency as an invitation to run to God. I’m honest about the times when I wrestled with God in the midst of grief, broken dreams, and pain. I admit that there is still unraveling taking place in my own heart. I’d like my vulnerability to be a stepping stone for others to come closer to God, allowing Him to change their earthly perspective to a Kingdom perspective.

To move our hearts toward this perspective, together we take a look at what it means to be unraveled, how it might look in our own lives, and how it looked in the lives of those recorded in the Bible. We find that unraveling is accepting both the good and the bad from God and walking through it all with Him. Sure, we would love our lives to model an episode of Leave It to Beaver, but that’s not how God’s Kingdom looks. There’s not one story in the Bible that is a Leave It to Beaver story.

This truth can be a difficult one to face, much less embrace. It’s hard to trust during those times in which you desperately want to know what’s going on, what’s going to happen, and if everything will be alright, and yet God doesn’t provide detailed blueprints. Instead, He calls us to trust more deeply, to believe more fully. Quite frankly, it’s easier to yell up to heaven, “You’ve got to be kidding me, God! Why this? Why me? I’m a good person!”

It’s easy to praise God on the mountaintop, but it’s another thing to muster up praise when you find yourself in the pit of despair, either by your own hand or the hands of others. Yet, through unraveling with Christ, we learn to develop trust in Him through authentic and faithful prayer. Unraveled suggests that each season of unraveling offers us an opportunity to develop a new level of belief in God. Through prayer, a chain reaction is set in motion, and we begin to form a spiritual palate for the things of God. We realize that, even in the midst of great pain, we can’t compromise.

Perhaps the most difficult truth this book presents is the necessity of unraveling comfortable patterns. We are creatures of comfort, and part of the unraveling process is learning to die to ourselves. Our culture screams of everything counter to that fact. In a society where we’re all dying to be seen, and we want everything instantly with a single click of a button, it’s hard to find hearts willing to change. It’s not glamorous to face our secret sins. Removing bad habits passed down from generations is not an attractive hashtag. It is far easier to run and hide than to stick and stay.

It is in the unraveling process, in those life-defining moments, that we learn to come to the end ourselves and learn to run boldly to Christ. Suffering and hardships are messy. The unraveling process is ugly, intensely personal, and painfully private. Each one of us was uniquely designed and crafted, so each of our unraveling moments are suited to us specifically. Unraveled seeks to be a companion to those who have gone through or who are going through their own unraveling.

Tiffany Bethmann