When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances (Pilgrimage Growth Guide) [Hardcover]

Carol J Kent (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 13, 2004 | Series: Pilgrimage Growth Guide

Carol and Gene Kent's son is in prison. When I Lay My Isaac Down tells their story and shares the transformational power principles they learned about forgiveness and faith.

Dealing with her anger, grief, and shame, Carol could have given up. Instead she tells a highly personal, heartbreaking, and uplifting story that will bolster your faith.

Includes discussion questions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When the phone call came at 12:35 a.m., a bleary-eyed Kent listened as her husband passed on the unbelievable news that their son, a United States Naval Academy graduate and Navy lieutenant, had shot and killed his wife's ex-husband. During those first few hours after receiving the harrowing news, major decisions, both legal and financial, needed to be made quickly. So began the Kents' two-and-a-half-year journey that led to the trial, conviction and sentencing of their son for first-degree murder. Kent (Tame Your Fears; Becoming a Woman of Influence; Secret Longings of the Heart), whose position as President of Speak Up Speaker Services made her the family's primary breadwinner, had no option but to continue working and speaking throughout this ordeal. She wondered if people would even want her as a speaker if they knew she was the mother of a murderer. Using a biblical story from Genesis 22 where God asked Abraham to literally "lay down his Isaac" as a sacrifice and then intervened at the last moment, Kent prayed for a similar miraculous outcome for her son. She shares her story with a transparency and vulnerability that readers will find both disarming and bracing. The Kent family's ongoing fight against despair and hopelessness is fittingly paired with their resolute faith in God's ability to transform even the most crushing circumstances into something good.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: NavPress (May 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576834743
• ISBN-13: 978-1576834749
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Kent is a popular international public speaker best known for being dynamic, humorous, encouraging, and biblical. Founder of Speak Up With Confidence (a communications training seminar), Speak Up Speaker Services (a speakers bureau), and Speak Up for Hope (a prison ministry), Carol is an expert on public speaking, on writing, and on encouraging people to hold on to hope when life's circumstances turn out differently from their dreams.

Carol has spoken internationally in South Africa, Germany, Bulgaria, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada. She regularly appears on a wide variety of nationally syndicated radio and television broadcasts.

She entered the public eye with the story of her only son's imprisonment for murder, a journey she shared in the powerful book, When I Lay My Isaac Down. This painful experience has led Carol and her husband, Gene, down a long road of sacrifice and redemption.

Carol holds a master's degree in communication arts and a bachelor's degree in speech education. Her bestselling books include: A New Kind of Normal (starred review in Publishers Weekly), When I Lay My Isaac Down (winner of Christian Retailers Choice Award), Becoming a Woman of Influence, Mothers Have Angel Wings, Secret Longings of the Heart, Tame Your Fears, Speak Up With Confidence, and Detours, Tow Trucks, and Angels in Disguise (all NavPress). She has also co-written with Karen Lee-Thorp the Designed for Influence Bible Studies (six books in the series, NavPress). Carol was the co-author and general editor of the Kisses of Sunshine Series of five books (Zondervan). Her articles have been published in a wide variety of magazines and in on-line resources.

Her new book, Between a Rock and a Grace Place, will be released by Zondervan in October. This book is the ongoing story of her journey with her son and it includes riveting letters he wrote from behind the razor wire of a maximum security prison. It also addresses the felt needs of people who hurt, and instills a surprisingly new way of thinking, leaving readers irresistibly drawn to see God's astonishing "grace places" in the middle of their roadblocks.

To book Carol for speaking engagements, or for information on her itinerary, or go to www.CarolKent.org. Join Carol on Facebook, follow her on Twitter@carolkentspeaks, or read her blog on the above website.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A book about surrender, and the lessons it can teach August 2, 2004

By FaithfulReader.com

Format:Hardcover

In some theoretical realm we all know that life can change drastically in an instant --- a slip on the ice, a freak accident. But most white-collar, suburban churchgoers do not expect the message that Carol Kent and her husband received in October 1999, just a few weeks after she had mused, "Does life get any better than this?" (Their careers --- directing a national Christian speakers' bureau --- were on track. Their only son --- an earnest Christian, a navy lieutenant --- was married and the stepfather to two young daughters, whom they enjoyed grandparenting.) The devastating news? That their son, Jason, was in jail, charged with the first-degree murder of his wife's ex-husband --- a crime witnessed by several bystanders. With this as the book's setting, you quickly understand the subtitle "Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances."

As may be obvious, the book's title is drawn from the biblical story of Abraham, who was willing to give up all claim to his son Isaac. It is a book about surrender and the paradoxical lessons it can teach. "There is hidden power in our unthinkable circumstances," she says. Subtitles of the eight chapters outline the journey: "The Power of Unthinkable Circumstances;...of Relinquishment;...of Heartache;...of Community;... of Hope;...of Faith;...of Joy;...of Speaking Up."

The narrative, which includes quotes from journals of Carol and her husband, draws the reader into the depths of parental wipeout but without dragging the reader through detailed specifics of the author's own circumstance. It is, at the same time, a very personal and yet impersonal story. You "see" emotion and spiritual process and growth more than you "see" Jason or the courtroom, for example; in some ways Jason is representative of any "heart sacrifice," any relinquished dream. (Unlike Abraham, the Kents have seen no miraculous and evident "deliverance." Jason is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.) "When we release our grasp...It's an act of trusting God when we cannot envision a positive outcome. But in the end, it's the only thing that works."

Carol's spiritual discussion in some chapters is supplemented by anecdotes tracing other people's faith journeys: a woman hearing that a husband has sexually abused a daughter, a single man losing the love of his life. The copyright page says some of these are "true to life" and included with permission; others are "composites of real situations." This disclaimer made it hard for me to endow a few compelling anecdotes with real-character authenticity.

Because of their nationwide ministry, the Kents have been "upheld" by a network of supportive "stretcher bearers" who have girded them in ways that may be enviable to the average reader. But I encourage the average reader to set aside that distinction and walk this journey alongside the author, who dares through darkness to hope in God's redemptive purposes --- some of which she can identify by the end of the book: "If [we] had never endured unthinkable circumstances, we might not have understood the pain of brokenness.... If there had been 'a lamb in the thicket' for our family, we wouldn't have launched Speak Up for Hope," a new prison-related ministry. "If life hadn't held unspeakable tragedy, we never would have been the recipients of such extravagant love."

Each chapter ends with questions that help the reader process personal pain. To her credit, at the end of the book, Carol goes out of her way to establish that her pain is not necessarily greater than that of other people's losses. "We don't need a meter to tell us which pain hurts the most. All of our heartaches produce great sadness, and telling our stories to each other brings a release, a comfort, and the knowledge that somebody cares." Most of all, she's newly aware of the love of God. "I know He loves me more than I love my 'Isaac.'"

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Help and Hope July 6, 2004

By Karen O'Connor

Format:Hardcover

Carol Kent not only shares her inexpressible pain over the sudden change/loss in her life due to her only child's arrest for murder, she also takes time to encourage her readers to look into their own lives for the Isaac they may need to lay down--or to reflect on the one they already have. I was brought to tears as I read about her suffering--always shared in a noble and authentic way--so like the Carol I have heard speak and teach. I was able to ponder my own loss, the Isaac that I was called to lay down 25 years ago. A new level of inner healing occurred. I recommend this book to everyone and anyone who is ready for God's mercy and comfort in the midst of sorrow.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HOPE... when circumstances don't make sense... July 13, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is for those who are on a journey that they did not choose.

It's also for those who love someone in the midst of horrific circumstances...it will help you know how to be a support and remain supportive for the long haul.
A practical, gripping, personal, honest and sobering story of Gods presence in a fallen world.
No matter why you read it, you will be challenged to be willing to release what you love to the One who loves you more.
It's a pretty quick read. You will not regret reading this book.