Description
Lonely No More is an honest and compassionate guide for anyone who struggles with loneliness and alienation, even in the midst of a busy and fulfilled life. It is a deeply personal exploration of what it means to be a woman, a Christian, a wife, a mother, a daughter, an artist and a leader.
Fearlessly honest, bittersweet but life-affirming, full of wonder and wisdom, this moving memoir charts its course through the mysterious landscape of the human spirit.
Karen Mains marks an unmistakable trail toward a place of refuge, a place of relationship, a place to be Lonely No More.
LW –
Karen Burton Mains shares her journey of soul healing as she struggles to break through traditional mindsets about her life, marriage, ministry and place in Christendom into a more Biblical view of herself, her husband, her place in God’s work. She comes to peace and integration over the conflicting parts of her life: she loves her husband and works well with him in ministry situations, yet faces her painful loneliness as she comes to self-honesty about his continued workaholism. She chooses to honor her husband and marriage, to accept and work with the reality that he probably will never stop his workaholism, that she needs to take care of herself where he lacks attentiveness to her. That the traditional church definition of a wife’s role and the ways a wife should show love may not be Biblical when it prevents God from being able to get through to her husband. Through dream imagry, Biblical insight and kind male support, she comes to healing as she deals with the fact that each of us have both masculine and feminine inside ourselves.The book is written in almost a journal format, with intensely personal thoughts and imagry mixed in, very understandable to those of us on the same path. This book may disturb those who are against using any “worldly” psychological insights or symbolism.For a discussion of “worldly” psychological symbolism, and how God invented the symbols, (Jung etc just document them) and how God wants to use them to bring our whole being first to the Cross, then to New Life in Christ, read Restoring the Christian Soul Through Healing Prayer by Leanne Payne.
Connie Rodgers –
I just received it and would love to dive into it right now, hopefully, soon. She is an excellent author and the title is just what I need!
Sandy W. –
I’m a longtime fan of Karen Mains and looked forward to reading this book. The book’s title describes its story well. It’s Karen’s account of an intensely personal part of her spiritual journey. You will not find here six easy steps to solve your problem with loneliness or restore intimacy to your marriage. You will find Karen’s story of God’s faithfulness and His personal interaction with her as He guided her toward wholeness. One good takeaway is that we can be sidetracked in our walk with God by focusing on someone else’s problems, delay our own growth by waiting for someone else to change, or interfere with God’s work by trying to fix other people ourselves. While Karen makes some good points, I’m left wondering why she wanted to share this story with controversial content and accounts of the intensely personal failures and struggles of other family members. Additionally, as another reviewer mentioned, the writing progresses like entries in a journal. Some incidents are left hanging, and the story jumps forward by days or even many months. There is also considerable space given to the need for, and progress toward, healing of Karen’s inner child who manifested to her in dreams, as well as to the male part of her psyche. She also spends a lot of time recounting her struggles with rejection and patriarchy in the church. Karen has commented in other forums that the emphasis on psychology in this book has been difficult for some readers. I’m one of them. Although I’m fairly open minded and respect those who study human behavior, I do not recommend this book. Unrelated to the content (and not included in my rating), are editing errors in this Kindle version. Periods are often missing, requiring the reader to backtrack and try to figure out where a sentence ended and another thought began. There were also a few oddities in the conversion to Kindle, such as the word “die” being inserted in place of the word “the” several times. If I were making the choice again, I’d get the paperback version.