Amazing Grace

Rev. Chaplain Marvin R. Jonasen, MDiv, BCC

Staff Chaplain — Emplify (by Gundersen) Health System

“Goodbye” is perhaps the most difficult word to say. One moment our world is safe and loving; the next moment it shatters. When the crushing force of grief hits, we often feel blindsided, devastated, and numb: how do we go on living without a main source of love and security? Where is God in our struggle? Despite our flattened emotions, we live in a society that rushes us “back to normal,” making us feel unseen, misunderstood, and isolated. Amazing Grace meets you in your struggle and reassures you that grief is necessary for your healing journey.

Written by chaplain and grief specialist Rev. Marvin Jonasen, this compassionate guide draws on a series of real life stories and years of clinical grief practice that explore the varied circumstances of grief and loss. The book is an accessible resource that guides us through life’s challenges by helping us understand there are no simple answers or quick solutions. Instead, this resource points to the mystery inherent in grief and loss and shares how that mystery opens the heart to self-compassion, self-love, and unwavering grace. Grief and loss do not have an end-point, but you don’t have to navigate the inside passages alone.

Whatever form your grief takes resulting from your experiences of betrayal or brokenness, this book is your companion in finding and reclaiming joy, wonder, and beauty in places that before seemed impossible.

Amazing Grace: A Journey Through the Inside Passages of Grief and Loss is precisely that, Amazing Grace. Jonasen’s true life tales of working with grief and loss are touched by hope, beauty, and an intimacy that is pure gift, amazing grace. This is one of those books where you read a little, pause, reflect upon your own story, go back to the book and then pause again returning to your own story discovering beauty and grace, healing and wholeness. Religious traditions call this style of writing wisdom literature -words of the sages. Transformative tales for all, invitations to become more fully alive. Jonasen’s tales are good for the soul!” (Rev. Dr. Larry Engel, Five Points Lutheran Church, Wisconsin)

Chaplain Marvin has had such amazing experiences during his work at the bedside that touch on our shared history and on our common fears during times of illness and death! Read this book to ground yourself in how to be fully present during one of the most important times in life that we all eventually face!” (Dr. Larry Skendzel, MD, Hospice Medical Director, Emplify Health Systems, Wisconsin)

Chaplain Marvin’s heartfelt, vulnerable writing arises from his incredible real life story–all of which has made this book possible. All of it–the pain, hurt, and joy–are woven into this book inspiring readers to find beauty and uplift, even when life seems impossible. (Affiliate Chaplain Peggy Johnson, PhD, Emplify Health Systems, Wisconsin)

Being human means experiencing the harsh reality that the price of love is loss and grief. Amazing Grace superbly captures this aspect of our morality in a way that helps readers see how it is possible to navigate this difficult terrain with hope and grace. (Thomas D. Harter, PhD, Director of the Department of Bioethics & Humanities with Emplify Health by Gundersen, Wisconsin)

Amazing Grace is an amazing book everyone should read. The author has shared so poignantly, actual situations of grief and how GRACE was the consoling factor in every situation. It was a joy to read and so heart-touching. It was so well-written I felt I was there with you. My heart broke then healed as you so graciously wrote. (Geri Moore, Minister’s wife of 57years, Corinth, MS)

Chaplain Jonasen, through sharing stories from his life and ministry, reminds us of love and mercy given and received and the importance of togetherness. (Pr. Kristy Daniels, Church of Steadfast Love and Compass Housing Alliance (Homeless Ministry), Seattle, WA)

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