The Wonderful Land of Affliction: Exploring Adversity Through Allegory
DISCOVER A TIMELESS LAND WHERE SORROWING HEARTS LIVE WITH HOPE AND JOY!
While reading this book, your eyes may be opened to an invisible land that exists all around you. Have you ever met a suffering person who was still smiling? Do you understand why distress and anguish crush some folks and not others? Come and meet the pilgrims in this Land of Affliction who have learned the eternal key to being joyful, hopeful, and patient through peril. Meet Miss Wisdom, Lady Peace, and Young Courage (among others) and learn who gives them peace and calms their fears of decline and death. Read and be comforted.
Meet the pilgrims who have learned the eternal key to being joyful, hopeful, and patient through peril.
“If, in your hardships, you find yourself vacillating between misery and mercy, relax into the pages of this book. In this sweet allegory (reminiscent of The Pilgrim’s Progress), you will meet friends who empathize with you. You will glean wisdom that will help temper your pain. What’s more, in The Wonderful Land of Affliction, you will not be alone – you will have Barbara Coleman and me as neighbors.” (Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni & Friends International Disability Center)
Free Printables
Allegory • Symbolic Storytelling
Allegory is a beautiful, artistic form of storytelling that offers us an opportunity to explore difficult, painful, or vulnerable parts of our stories from a safer distance and a fictional character’s perspective.
Prayers for the Journey
These short prayers can strengthen, encourage, and inspire you to step into the comforting presence of God, where you are fully known, infinitely cared about, and deeply loved.
33 Biblical One Anothers
Pray through these 33 One Another Verses, meditating on what it means to love one another deeply from the heart as we learn to walk each other home selflessly.
I want to give this powerful little book to everyone I know! At first, The Wonderful Land of Affliction may sound contradictory (Who thinks of affliction as wonderful?). Still, as Barbara masterfully walks with us through the experiences of various characters in the Land of Affliction, you will marvel at how God meets and sustains them. Through the stories of their lives, you will discover that you can draw even deeper into the heart of Christ in your own trials, no matter what they are. Read this book and be encouraged that hope and infinite treasure await in the Land of Affliction!
Vaneetha Risner
Author of Desperate for Hope
Steve Estes
Pastor and Co-author of When God Weeps
The very title of Mrs. Coleman’s book (The Wonderful Land of Affliction) suggests it might promise too much. Nevertheless, she has accomplished what the title promises—and more. Not only will this book paint a picture of the pilgrimage of those who struggle with chronic illness (and remind you that those who struggle for years in the land of affliction often have an extremely close walk with God), but it may also give those who dwell in the land of ease genuine empathy and compassion for those who walk in the land of affliction. Pick up this book and read it—you will be blessed!
Bryan D. Estelle, Ph.D.
Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary California
What is it like to suffer silently as part of the body of Christ while the rest of the church seems to move on without you? In The Wonderful Land of Affliction, Barbara Coleman offers a little glimpse of this experience (which is far more common than many realize). Through a creative Pilgrim’s-Progress-like allegory, Barbara draws on her own experience to bring the story of chronic sufferers to life in a captivating tale that enables empathy, compels compassion, and helps all of God’s people better understand and care for those among us dealing with all manner of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual limitations and struggles.
Dr. S. A. Fix, M.Div. Westminster Seminary California; Ph.D.
The Catholic University of America, Pastor, adjunct faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA), Reformed Theological Seminary (DC), and Faith Theological Seminary (MD).
Barbara Coleman’s The Wonderful Land of Affliction gives a heartfelt, birds-eye view of the joys and sorrows of those afflicted with chronic illness. In a world full of pain and suffering, this thought-provoking allegory is a powerful encouragement never to forget that God’s Word brings joy and hope to His children even in affliction. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)
Martha Bent
Co-Founder, Essential Piece Ministries International
Barbara Coleman has written an accessible and compelling account of her battle with chronic pain. It is an instructive story of growing self-knowledge and deepening faith. Both those dealing with chronic pain and those living with people who suffer from chronic illness will find valuable insight in this book.
Susan C. Bourque
E.B. Wiley Professor of Government, Emerita Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Emerita Smith College, Northampton, MA
This little book (in allegorical form) contains short chapters of insight that the author has gleaned from living with suffering. Take time to ponder the contents. Whether we describe our lives as easy or difficult, every reader will find Barbara Coleman’s The Wonderful Land of Affliction instructive. The subject matter is both simple and profound, truthful and thought-provoking. May our minds dwell on such things, and may the result be that we grow in wisdom, gentleness, and forbearance!
Tricia Bloomberg
Women’s Ministry Coordinator, Reformed Presbyterian Church of Bowie Bowie, Maryland
Barbara writes a compelling piece interweaving the struggles of those with chronic illness. She writes with empathy and understanding of the grief, anger, hurt, contentedness, and joy that are all part of the journey. The common thread on her journey is the steadfast love of Jesus, her Savior, and His hand holding hers as He guides her safely through. I am a grandmother now and have lived in this Land of Affliction since I was 17. I wish I had had this story to guide me and share with others when they tried to understand!
Peggy Parker
Friend and fellow sufferer, Annapolis, Maryland
God has specially equipped Barbara to write about the beauty and treasures found in the Land of Affliction. She knows of the wonders God performs in people there to make it a lovely place to spend time. She has spent many years in that land with Jesus, being made beautiful in spirit and truth. Read and be touched by God, who makes beautiful what is not, who cares for the afflicted, and who creates such beauty in them! Go, care for the afflicted as Jesus did, learn beautiful and wonderful things from them, and be blessed by their stories.
Peggy Locher
Friend and fellow pilgrim
Bono (the lead singer of U2) says the best way to make an album is to “open up a vein.” Barbara Coleman opens up a vein in The Wonderful Land of Affliction. She pours out her pain journey as a path toward the type of spiritual knowledge often gained by suffering. Using the time-tested method of allegory, the author allows us to walk in the shoes of the afflicted. The journey is not lonely; she – and we – meet with different characters, each holding a unique perspective for interpreting lifelong pain. Coleman’s allegory reveals what it is to suffer without oversharing. I commend it to all who minister, for we rarely know if or what type of pain the people around us are enduring.
Rev. Nicholas Hathaway
Associate Pastor, New Covenant OPC
Chronic Joy Publications
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Printables
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