Blindsided: A Journey from Tragic Loss to Triumphant Love

by Mark Roser

Overview

Why is there evil in a world created by a good and all-powerful God?
 
Ethan Roser, a 19-year-old studying to be a pastor at Wheaton, raised in Africa as the son of faithful missionaries, wrote those words just days before his death due to a freak accident on campus—almost as if he had left a message behind for his parents, siblings, and friends.
 
After Ethan died his father, Mark Roser, kept his sanity by writing, and wrestling with questions as profound as life itself. God had kept Mark's family safe for 22 years in Africa, doing missionary work; he needed to know why God permitted his son to die now. In Blindsided, he shares the answers to those questions.

This book will grip every parent, and it will inspire every person who strives to live for God.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640606524
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,055,408
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Roser has ministered around the world––Nepal, Pakistan, China, Egypt, Mexico, Ireland, UK, and in the USA. He and his family lived and served in Zimbabwe, Africa for 22 years. Mark has led many to faith in Christ who are active in fulltime ministry. In Zimbabwe, he pioneered Lighthouse Church, which grew to 1,000 members, and developed a Bible college from 53 students to 243 and from a two-year curriculum to a four-year bachelor’s degree program. Mark’s gift is teaching, and he provides developmental relief to children in poor nations. His theological training is diverse: Xavier University, Centerville Bible College, Cincinnati Christian Seminary, University of Biblical Studies, Louisiana Baptist Seminary, and a doctorate in from Logos Christian Graduate School in Jacksonville. He has written five books and has been married to Pat for 40 years. In addition to Ethan, who died, they have four other adult children, all active in Christian ministry.
 

Table of Contents

Prologue A Dark Weight 7

1 A Knock at the Door 11

2 Leaving Me? 16

3 A Nightmare Call 23

4 How Could This Happen? 28

5 Ethan's Last Days 36

6 A Similar Question 44

7 Ethan's Precious Body 52

8 An Empty Chair 59

9 Leaving Africa 66

10 An Ongoing Investigation 74

11 Possible Answers 80

12 My American Nightmare 88

13 Ethan's Home Going 96

14 Why Now? 103

15 Ethan's Burial 111

16 What Do I Do Now? 118

17 "Not Paying Attention" 124

18 God Grieves 133

19 A Chapel Service 142

20 Why and How? 151

21 Surrounded fry Mountains 159

22 My Darkness into Light 166

23 Tell Me of Your Love 174

24 You Have Answered Me 181

25 A Full Circle 189

26 Be Bold and Go All In 197

27 My Letter to Ethan 206

Epilogue 215

Postscript Thirty Points of Comfort 217

The Final Word 252

Notes 253

Permissions 254

Editorial Reviews

"Evangelical theologian Mark C. Roser thought he had all the answers about God. He’d founded churches and developed a Bible college in Zimbabwe; he’d published books about the devil, scripture, and theodicy. Then his 19-year-old son Ethan died in a freak sports accident at Wheaton College. This book is a tender and wise memoir about how Roser worked through his grief and became attuned to new ways of finding God in suffering. Roser is both utterly confident in his theology and honest about the difficulty of making it mesh with every twist and turn in the grieving process. Thus, even readers who disagree with his theology will find in this book a model of faithful engagement with difficult questions." —Christian Century

“Mark Roser’s well-crafted book is beyond inspiring. It brought not only flowing tears, but a delight in seeing how God answered his deepest questions. Having lost our precious Kayla in an accident, I am also able to rejoice that God chooses young radiant souls like Ethan and my daughter to reach their generation for Christ. As Jesus said, ‘Truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’ (John 12:24). Blindsided will help you seize every opportunity—even the difficult ones—to spread Christ’s glorious gospel and reach ‘a thousand Ethans.’” —Julia Kay Duerler, author of She Had No Regrets
 
“A searing and honest look at the pain and grief Mark Roser and his family experienced. Before the accident, Mark was known as a minister who wrote and taught on God’s sovereignty. One of the toughest theological questions we will ever face is the question of why there is evil and suffering. There is no sugar-coating a father’s grief as he asks, ‘Why did God allow my son to die?’ and as he says, ‘Preaching it is a whole lot easier than living it!’ Roser is a modern Job.” —Dr. Gary Sweeten, Founder, Lifeway Counseling Centers
 
“Roser’s beautiful, poignant book made me laugh and cry and feel deeply, not only for the Rosers in their loss, but in their coming to terms with that most haunting of questions about suffering, Why, God? It also helped me process my own experience of loss, forgiveness, and making sense of tragedy in life.” —Suzanne E. Shaw, PsyD, MFT, Marriage and Family Therapist
 
“Having lost a beloved seventeen-year old daughter in a tragic accident, I found that Mark’s amazing book described the place where we lived as he put into words the questions and feelings of every parent who loses a child. We have known Mark and Pat for more than twenty-five years as Mark was our church’s inaugural mission guest speaker, and we have watched the Rosers live out their love for God when life hurts.” —Pastor Gary and Mary Trenum, Founders of Victory Christian Church, Kettering, Ohio
 

From the Publisher