Unworld People - Hardcover

Joyce Landorf Heatherley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062520016 ISBN 13: 9780062520012

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1987

Synopsis

Offers healing words for those who feel unloved, unwanted, unfit, unusable, and un-Christian, in this testimony to the unfailing and unlimited grace of God

About this title

About the Author:

Joyce Landorf Heatherley, nationally known author, public speaker, and recording artist brings the special message of love and hope to thousands of men and women through her books, videos, music, and inspired presentations.

A graduate of Pasadena City College with a degree in music, Joyce also received an honorary doctorate in humanities from Azusa Pacific University. Through her 24 books, her film series (His Stubborn Love), speaking engagements, radio programs and national television appearances, Joyce has spread her inspired message of hope to millions of readers and viewers both in the U.S. and overseas. Her four record albums exemplify her musical gift and touch the hearts of people needing reassurance, hope and support in the trials of everyday living. There are over seven million copies of her products in circulation.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Unworld people are like you and me, whether they be next door neighbors, inmates in a state prison, or families waiting in a hospital. Nothing seems to set us apart from any other human beings, except-

Except - and the past years have drilled this into me - it is precisely when we think our life and journey here on earth is progressing about normal (neither terrific nor terrible) that we come up against the exact moment of our unworld situation. It sets up its furious clamor on our doorstep demanding its rightful due! Why others do not hear the deafening and ever-crescendoing sounds of the unworld experi4ence, we cannot understand! We find ourselves trapped and unprepared for the devastating experience about to burst through the doorway of our souls.

Our encounter with the reality of the unworld pressures us out of the complacent womb of the ordinary and we are born into the extraordinary, undeniable unworld phenomenon. We become bona fide citizens of the unworld and our lives are forever altered.

We qualify as unworld people when the most unthinkable, the most unbearable, the most unimaginable, and the most unreal thing happens to us...not to someone else...but to us...to me!

The unworld turbulences in our lives, as I have come to recognize them, are not merely your usual malfunctional problems or struggles connected with being alive.

No, the unworld pandemonium of suffering is not:

A grouping or collection of disquieting turning points.

A normal, orderly change point.

A predictable stress associated with transition.

A small matter of being in physical or emotional discomfort.

A vague sense of dissatisfaction or a simplistic case of the "blahs."

A nagging, nuisance headache to be relieved by aspirin.

A slight loss that is no big deal and can be easily replaced.

Absolutely Not!

We are members of the unworld when we are blown to bits and tiny pieces by the cataclysmic explosion of the unforeseeable, the unscrupulous, the unpardonable, the unnegotiable, the unbearable, and the unheard of thing. That "thing" which could never even touch us and would not dare touch us but now grabs us and rips our souls to shreds.

Perhaps you are thinking that my word cataclysmic to too strong a term and that I'm overreacting. Please know that I am keenly aware that the unworld experience comes to us accompanied by varying levels of agony. I would not minimize one person's shattering nor would I pronounce one unworld experience as greater than another.

Sometimes, though, to the casual observer, there might be the tendency to view one person's unworld experiences as shattering in nature and see another's experience as merely a tough break, maybe even sad, but certainly not devastating.

It is a totally different story, however, if you are the one feeling all the emotional effects of the unworld experience. When it's happening to you - you don't have the time or stamina to make a comparison test with others to see who has it the worst. You only know that while your circumstances, events, and participating people will differ from others', the brokenness of your heart is overwhelming, the pain you are suffering is very intense, and the war raging around you is very real.

When you come to the place where your trauma cannot be denied or ignored, it is cataclysmic and simply overwhelming! You understand that the unworld experience has happened to you - not to someone you've read about in the newspaper or seen on local or national TV. To you - not to someone who lives in a country halfway around the world. To you - not to a neighbor who lives down the street To you, to your mate, to your children, to your family in your house - "Oh, dear God," you cry, "this is happening to me...to me!"

We may have felt, from time to time during our journey here on earth, that the road we traveled was a rocky, dangerous path, but at least we could see it and it was leading somewhere. Now suddenly, there is no path. It's as though we have come to the end of the trail and inches away from our feet is a sheer cliff. The path we are on drops thousands of feet below us. We never saw the precipice coming and we never dreamed the trail would end so soon or so abruptly.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0062520016
• ISBN 13: 9780062520012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258