Intro

Today, I am going to do something a little different for my book review. I am going to review a non-fiction book which really spoke to me. So far I have mostly reviewed fiction books, so this will be slightly different. I also want to apologize for not getting anything posted last week. My family was in town, so I didn’t have the time to write like normal.

This is a book that looks at a young lady who is dealing with a chronic illness and how she doesn’t let that illness detract from what God wants for her and her life. As someone who has dealt with a chronic illness myself, I could relate to what she was saying. I understood what she meant when she talked about the fear of the unknown and not wanting to have to do things differently because of her medical condition.

I know I haven’t spoken much about my illness here, but hopefully, this will be a good intro into what has been going on in my life. Additionally, I plan to write a full article, or maybe even a book a little further down the road about what I have gone through with my own health. The main thing that I keeping me from writing more on this topic is the fact that as of now, I still don’t even have a diagnosis as to what the problem truly is.

Like her, I have spent my fair share of time going to doctor’s offices just to be told that they don’t know what is going on, but that they wish me the best of luck in finding answers.

Summary

This book takes a look at the life of Tori Joy Geiger who was born with a congenital heart defect. Just because she has a heart defect, doesn’t mean that she is willing to give up on life and just take the easy way out. Rather, she states how things are just different. She might have to spend more time at the gym in order to get the same results as others, and she might have to sit out while the rest of her team is dong conditioning, but that doesn’t lessen her desire to compete.

Woven throughout the book are various stories of her life and how from time to time things went from bad to worse. One constant thread has been how her team lost in the State Championship game for Volleyball her freshman year, and how she then made it her goal to win the state championship each of the next three years that she was in high school.

This was a big goal for anyone, and she didn’t let her medical condition get in the way of putting in the work and doing the training that she needed to do in order to achieve her goal. She then describes how she goes on to win the championship each of the next three years, and how that helped get her a place to play collegiate volleyball.

This could be just some other feel good story, but she takes the time throughout to mention the things that God has done in her life, and how she has grown in her walk with Him. She states that, yes, there were some hard times, and some times when she argued and screamed at God, but overall, she was able to see His hand at work through it all. Having gone through my own medical issues, I know it can be frustrating, and I know, that at times, I have wanted to question God as to why he would allow me to go through such a thing, but my faith has been made stronger through my difficulties.

Mrs. Geiger also makes it a point to give exercises at the end of chapters of things to do to help you become more grateful, and eventually help the reader to realize that even though things might have been rough, God can still use your story in an amazing way to inspire others. We might not feel like we are the best equipped to tell our story of what has gone on in our lives, and we might feel like an imposter trying to tell the world of what has gone on in our lives because we don’t feel like we have an audience, or that no one wants to hear our story anyways, so why bother. She makes it very clear that your story matters, and that it can make a huge impact in someone’s life.

Review

As someone who has dealt with my own share of a chronic illness, I can relate to her book more than other people who haven’t had to deal with this have. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is struggling with a chronic illness, and I recommend it to anyone who cares for someone with a chronic illness.

Life can be tough, but God is faithful, he is in control, and he already knows the outcome. Even in the midst of difficult times, we should trust him. This book helps to show God’s goodness in the hard times, and how we should never fail to be grateful for what we do have. It is now our responsibility to ensure that others hear our story so that God may be praised and given all the glory.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.

Isaiah 25:1