Midnight Jesus: Where Struggle, Faith, and Grace Collide... by Jamie Blaine

★★★★★

The heart of God can be found in the unlikeliest places, in the unlikeliest people.

Jamie Blaine is an unconventional, and actually quite accidental, psychiatric crisis interventionist whose work takes him to "the least of these." A gifted storyteller, Blaine shares heart-wrenching and sometimes hilarious stories of everyday people who need to know God is there in their darkest hours – people dealing with secret shame, doubt, desperation, even suicide. Humans looking for wholeness, looking for Jesus.

Painting beauty where it seems none exists, Midnight Jesus helps readers transcend their own struggles, showing how truth can come from the strangest places. They will meet people like * Skeeter and Wookie, two homeless guys who show that community happens wherever there is shared need and a willingness to give * Pastor Ponder who holds an altar call after his sermon at the psych ward and says it's the best church service he's ever had * Kat, the tattooed hairdresser who dreams about Jesus and longs for spiritual connection, who shows that you can't judge a book by its cover * Jesus, who makes an invisible cameo in every story.

As Blaine writes, "I am one wrecked and dirty treasure, but God still decides I am worth the effort to save." Jamie Blaine is the kind of writer whose view of the commonplace transforms life into the transcendent.

In Midnight Jesus: Where Struggle, Faith, and Grace Collide, Jamie Blaine pulls together stories based on his various experiences and tells a unique and inspiring narrative of finding Jesus in the strangest places. With humor and grace, he portrays a cast of interesting, quirky characters from a variety of environments, including a roller rink, psych ward, and megachurch, and as he tells the stories surrounding them, I really enjoyed Blaine’s voice and perspective. Overall, Midnight Jesus is an engaging read, with thought-provoking insight, and I really liked it. I would have no problem recommending it to interested readers - it’s worth reading.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of Midnight Jesus and the opportunity to honestly review it. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

About the Author

Jamie Blaine is a licensed sex and suicide specialist who has worked in psych wards, megachurches, rehabs, radio stations, and roller rinks. He is the non-fiction editor of the L.A. literary collective The Nervous Breakdown, contributor to the online faith magazine OnFaith, writer for Salon.com, The Weeklings.com, Bass Guitar magazine, Drummer U.K. magazine & America's best-selling street paper The Nashville Contributor.