Unhaling: on God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life

Book excerpt: Unhaling: On God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life is a collection of funny, insightful essays that celebrate the spiritual in the most unlikely everyday moments. These are snapshots of Elise's cluttered, wildly disorganized, very full life as church worker, actress, writer and mom of five. God's grace can be found everywhere: in burned dinners, bungled piano lessons, forgotten appointments, and overgrown yards. God is right there when the kids break out in chicken pox (all at once), when they skydive, study in Thailand, enter the Naval Academy, perform their music in concert, take a first solo bus trip to Boston. And God gently and lovingly encourages a certain perpetually nervous fifty-something to unclench, relax and "unhale". Unhaling challenges us all to look at our own experiences with new eyes, and recognize the faithful One who stands with us, with all our flaws and our failures throughout our perfectly imperfect lives.