I’ve tried a few times to send this in, and it kept sending me back. I did review this on release day. This was beautifully written and is a new favorite book. I have already reread it and know I will again in the future.

This is one of my favorite reads. I was given the privilege of reading this before it published, and I have read it twice since then. It is a beautifully written book that centers around a mental health journey and how God's beauty--found in the creation, in homes, and in interactions with fellow image-bearers--breaks through. But it is not a book only for those who have mental health struggles, but for anyone who has ever asked God "why" or walked a hard road and wondered what their faith looks like in the midst of darkness. So, a book for all of us.

I loved every part of this book. Sarah's heart is laid out plain for us all to see and we find she is so much like us. Highly recommend to anyone looking for encouragement especially in hard places.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm not sure I've ever read a book more transparent and so beautifully written. Ms. Clarkson's prose was like a beautiful lullaby into her story.

Sarah wrote a masterpiece. This book was challenging and eye opening. Sarah always has such a beautiful way with words that just draw you in.

An excellent, beautiful book on a life living well capturing literature, love, and language while engaging fully and truthfully with mental health. A beautifully written book.

This book was incredibly lovely. Sarah's candidness is a breath of fresh air, and her writing was breathtaking. I will continue to read anything else that she publishes.

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for everyone's shelf!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 26, 2021
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Honestly, there are few books that I want to keep forever, to refer back to, to read excerpts aloud to my family or friends, to ponder ideas, to savor words, to adjust my thinking and life by, but "this beautiful truth" is one of them! Every chapter is like walking alongside the author through a very difficult yet lovely journey and being a witness to the way the Lord works. Sarah Clarkson is a gifted writer, using words masterfully to paint images that make the reader feel they are her companion on the quest to find God's goodness in darkness. This memorable book is a work of generosity that clearly bears God's light, inspiring me to want to do the same.

So good! It’s one of those that will reach deep into parts of you that you’ve pushed down because they were too hard or too ugly.

Sarah shares her own struggles with mental health, discussing its impact on her, as well as how God used the beauty of creation to minister to her in the darkness.

If you are someone who has ever struggled with mental health or the sheer darkness of this world, this is a truly wonderful (and timely) read.

What a beautifully written book! Sarah Clarkson masterfully handles the subject of beauty and faith with honesty and compassion, always pointing her reader to the giver of beauty and hope. It’s one of the most transparent and hopeful books I’ve read in a long time. This would be a wonderful gift for anyone struggling with mental illness and wondering how God can care for them in the midst of their pain and suffering.

This book embodies truth, vulnerability, faith, art, and beauty. Sarah shares her experience of finding God in beauty during her battle with mental illness. She shares, "This Beautiful Truth is one of those hidden books of the soul, a work of doubt and yearning and quiet wonder that came to me after many long years of struggle." I loved her poetic prose and the artistic examples she gave.

What a thoughtful and lovely book, and just what I needed in these pandemic times. Sarah shares from her heart her experiences with mental illness and how that drove her to seek beauty in the darkness...or, to be more precise, how God met her with beauty in the midst of her darkness. This is a lovely, lyrical book, but it is not just sentimentality. There is good, robust theology here, pointing us to a God who stoops low to extend a hand to those who are suffering, and how the Incarnation is the ultimate example of this. But Sarah has a way of giving us these truths without it becoming a dry tome. On the contrary, she offers us her own hand in the darkness, walking alongside us to point us to the One whose Beauty and Goodness is reflected in all we see. Highly recommend!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book as an ARC as part of the launch team for this book. (less)

I devoured this 206-page book over the space of 2 days. Personally, this book was the oasis I didn't know I needed in my own mental health journey. It helped me realize - and finally VERBALIZE - concepts that will be forever life-changing.

But right now, I'm sharing 5 reasons why YOU should read this beautiful book.

*First, a disclaimer. Sarah tends to put great emphasis and veneration on personal experiences and liturgies. If one is not careful, this book can lean toward dependence on emotional experience, rather than on God’s sure promises. However, an appreciation for the beauty God has created and a belief in the sufficiency of His Word can coexist, and with that firm belief I do recommend this book, just with a disclaimer for the reader to keep balance in mind. I don’t agree with every single theological detail but there is still GREAT value here.* Feel free to reach out if you have questions about this!

1. Read this book as a valuable memoir. Sarah offers hope through her vulnerability and bravery in sharing her struggles with mental illness - OCD, intrusive thoughts, depression, panic attacks. Read the journey of a young woman who was raised in a Christian home, grappling with her childhood perception of God, and how He made Himself known to her.
"In a world wrecked by sin, our pain is the crucible in which we will work out our faith. No human story is exempt from grief. There is no faith without the wild ache of impossible questions. To wrestle with God—to grip him like Jacob with hungering, angry hands—is the work of every person born into a fallen world. This is what it means to be human and follow God in a world at war, wrenched away from the Beautiful One who crafted its being. But the way we wrestle will shape the whole of our story, and Beauty tells us what we are wrestling for."
2. Read to be encouraged. If you have ever struggled with any kind of depression, doubt, sadness, or grief, her words will be deeply relatable and comforting.

"Job is a drama of questions, a story that echoes with honest anguish. Yet answers are never given in the listed, scientific way we think they ought to be in the modern world. At least, not by God, who was the only one who could answer Job truly. The terms of the story somehow forbid the kind of forensic revelations we so crave when we are hurt, and this was, oddly, a grace to me. For if one thing had become clear to me in my own suffering, it was that there is a mystery to theodicy, one we may not unravel this side of eternity. God does come—oh, he comes—but that doesn’t mean the pain ends, yet. God doesn’t tell Job why his children are dead and his house is in ruins. God doesn’t explain to Job that he is part of a cosmic wager or that he hasn’t actually done anything wrong. God doesn’t offer explanation; but oh, he offers his own heartbreakingly beautiful self.

3. If you don't live with these struggles, I guarantee that you know someone who does. Read this book for a glimpse into what it's like for them.
"I thought that wrestling with God meant I was doing something mightily wrong. Doubt and terror, fear and anguish? Surely these are the marks of sin? I thought that if my belief was strong enough, I would march forward like a soldier into maturity. I thought that’s what it meant to walk by faith, not the drunken, battered stumble of a grieved soul just stubborn enough to grasp God by the fingernails for one more day."
4. Read it for food for thought. I've written here before about the practice of finding beauty in everyday life. This book gives the reason WHY. Why is beauty important? What does it tell us about God? Why should we seek it and create it so bravely? (And why is it brave to create beauty in our lives?)

5. Read this book to be strengthened in your pursuit of goodness and Christ-likeness. This book takes our need to reconcile God's character with the darkness we see without and within ... and offers practical ways to live out this theodicy in the world. Sarah has a unique gift for taking the abstract and making it tangible. (less)

“Beauty and brokenness told me two different stories about the world.
I believe that beauty told true.
This is the story it told.”

Beautifully written and deeply encouraging. Given all the “hard” in the world these days, it felt like being reminded of the beauty in the world was just good for the soul.

Sarah shares her story in a way that is raw, vulnerable and poetic, taking her readers through a journey of faith and gives them a bird's eye view of how to encounter the world, in all of it's beauty, even when life doesn't feel beautiful.

Highly recommend for anyone who is feeling weary, who is looking for reasons to hope or who is simply looking for encouragement along the way.

Beautiful book with so many deep and thoughtful commentaries. I think this could be one of my favorite reads of the year, especially given my experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. Sarah spoke life into a dark season for me and I've recommended it to many others.

I used to be shocked when I heard people say that after something terrible happened, they weren’t able to pray or read the bible for a time. It seemed almost blasphemous. Then it happened to me.

This Beautiful Truth is about how God meets us in the depths of our pain in ways we don’t expect. It’s about how God responds to our anger not with systematic answers, but with his own beauty. It’s about how God doesn’t always remove our pain, but he enters into it and walks through it with us.

This book runs the full gamut of human emotion and is deeply cathartic because of it. There is no spiritual bypassing here. Sarah Clarkson brings you on a raw and visceral journey through her struggle with a rare form of OCD through grief, anger, doubt, and bitterness, and into the safe hands of a God who can handle all those feelings.

In Psalm 34 God invites us to taste and see that he is good, and Sarah Clarkson points out that this isn’t just metaphorical. All that is good, true, and beautiful is a testament to the character of the God who made it. Beauty, Clarkson argues, isn’t a distraction from the wrong and painful things happening in the world. Food, art, literature, nature, soaring music, and the face of Christ reflected in another person are tangible evidence of God with us. As with Job, God doesn’t always give us neat answers, but he does give us himself.

“Like Job, I was called out of the closed rooms of my neat expectations or pat theological assumptions, past my doubt and terror of God into the great battle and journey of living in a fallen world still invaded, pervaded, and beloved by the Creator who comes to draw all things back to health by his own unbearable breaking.” (p.22)

This book is an invitation to drink in the goodness of God that is all around us in the middle of the pain we all bear, and it’s one I will keep coming back to.

Sarah Clarkson writes in such a beautiful and poetic way. This book was one I needed to read. To see God's goodness in the midst of darkness. I need the hope filled message of this book.

This Beautiful Truth is a beautifully written memoir about the way God uses beauty to redeem the darkest parts of our world and ourselves. Sarah shares her deep personal struggle with metal illness and OCD. It is a struggle that shaped much of her adult life, and yet, she also shares the way God’s beauty broke into her darkness and gave her an anchor. Sarah is a wonderful writer and the story was a joy to read. I loved reading her love story as she met her husband. She weaves together intimate moments from her life—a worship service, a conversation, a moment in a coffee shop—and shows how God used beauty and grace to shape her thinking about her illness, her life, the world, and God himself.

I gave this book 3 stars because I feel very conflicted. Sarahs writing is beautiful and her personal journey is inspiring. But I found her theology to be vague and at times it was unclear whether she was supporting a certain theological point or if she was simply relaying she had heard it.

Sometimes when we know of someone who has been raised in the Christian faith, and continues to live in a religious background it is easy to assume that they don’t ever have struggles of faith.
Just because there is no signs of “rebellion” or “doubt” it can be easy to say that their faith is easy for them.

Sarah is giving us a glimpse in the reality of being a generational Christian who has coped with deep struggles of darkness, fear, doubt, and brokenness. Her struggle with mental illness is I think more common than many Christians are willing to share.

I want to thank Sarah for writing this story. I know that it took incredible courage to share. I know because I have dealt with the reality of depression and no amount of Bible thumping can break us free from that darkness. Sarah is honest that is an ongoing story of faith that is growing, even when all may seem lost. It is about the battle that goes on inside the heads and hearts of Christians to live and work in a life a faith.

Don’t make assumptions about people’s stories. Become a friend and that will lead to a beautiful relationship.