Struck: One Christian's Reflections on Encountering Death

by Russ Ramsey, Scott Sauls (Foreword by)

Overview

• EPA 2018 Christian Book Award Finalist - Biography and Memoir

"When my doctor told me I was dying, I came alive." What happens when you come face-to-face with your mortality? When your body fails you, what happens to your faith? Russ Ramsey was struck by a bacterial infection that destroyed his mitral valve, sending him into heart failure and requiring urgent open-heart surgery. As he faced the possibility of death, he found himself awakened to new realities. In the critical days and months that followed, Ramsey came to see the world through the eyes of affliction. He grappled with fear, anger, depression, and loss, and yet he experienced grace through the suffering that filled him with a hope and hunger for the life to come. This profoundly eloquent memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. In the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780830844944
Publisher:	InterVarsity Press
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Russ Ramsey is a pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife and four children. His writing has appeared at The Rabbit Room, The Gospel Coalition, The Art House, and He Reads Truth. He is the author of Behold the Lamb of God and was awarded the 2016 Christian Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for his book Behold the King of Glory.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Scott Sauls

Part I: Affliction (Month 1)
1. Learning to See: Affliction and Faith
2. Struck: The Onset of Affliction
3. The Sacramental Echo: Diagnosis
4. Trail Magic: Hospitalization and Adaptation
5. The Distance: The Space Between the Sick and the Well
6. The Letters: Putting a House in Order
7. Scowling at the Angel: Surgery and Waking Up

Part II: Recovery (Months 2–5)
8. Scar Tissue: Physical Healing and Resiliency
9. Monster in the Dark: Depression
10. Charlie and the Man in the Mask: The Sacred Work of Rehabilitation
11. A Tornado in a Trailer Park: Anger and Ego

Part III: Lament (Months 6–22)
12. Seeing with Clearer Eyes: Recognizing the Need to Lament
13. Barbara: Returning to the Work of Burden Bearing
14. A Song of Lament: A Year of Grappling with Suffering Before God

Part IV: Doxology (Months 23–24)
15. To Climb a Mountain: Finding a Way Forward
16. The Bird and the Boy: A Doxology of Praise

Afterword: A Wife's Response to Her Husband's Affliction
Acknowledgments
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Sandra McCracken

"Earthy, authentic, and full of enduring wisdom, Russ Ramsey has eloquently documented his journey through loss in this personal story. Struck offers hope and honesty in the midst of suffering, displaying a life lived with an open heart before God in all circumstances."

Annie F. Downs

"My word, Russ Ramsey has done a beautiful thing here. It takes absolute courage to walk through trauma and affliction and then return to it for the sake of others' healing. This book will be one you treasure, return to, and know just the right time to give to your friends."

Barnabas Piper

"A good memoir is about the author but not really about the author. In it the reader sees themself, their experiences, their emotions, their life. Struck is just such a memoir. Russ has told his story, but not just his story. He has told my story of pain and grief and faith and fear and recovery and doubt and help. And he has told yours too. His story is of a medical crisis and more. Yours may be of a broken marriage or a lost child or a career in ruins, but it's the same story with the same hope. As you read this story of a stranger, you will see yourself and your loved ones in the pages and be encouraged."

Bethany Jenkins

"Russ Ramsey has written a memoir that's as much about you as it is about him, because it's inviting and true to the human experience. His honest vulnerability and literary prose aren't simply talents, but offerings to God that beckon us to worship alongside him. This book is a gift."

Amanda Bible Williams

"Russ has a way of articulating the complex intersection of faith and suffering that is profound yet approachable. In sharing this honest and beautifully written account of his own life-and-death experience, he succeeds in upholding both the mystery and confidence of the gospel, compelling us to take a closer look at a God who is as kind as he is sovereign."

Samantha Fisher

"Russ Ramsey takes you along with him for the dark moments as well as the revelations that surface through affliction. His humanity shines through in this honest account of what it's like to get unexpected news and accept a new reality through suffering."

Andrew Peterson

"In the spirit of C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Russ has done us all a great service by chronicling his own journey into the darkness of grief and death and mortality. I'm so glad he recovered and came back from such a place to tell us this story—which is not so much about brokenness, but healing. This book has already been a comfort to me, and I have no doubt that it will be a comfort to many."

Kris Allen

"Russ Ramsey's Struck is a refreshing and honest take on the emotional and spiritual impact of physical struggle. There is no way to prepare for something like trauma. As someone who has been through it, Russ's words helped me to realize the things I felt while I was going through my own season of affliction."

Lore Ferguson Wilbert

"Russ is the kind of writer I wish we had more of in Christian literature. His prose is flawless, his voice familiar, and his theology true. Struck is his story, told with the kind of humility only a man who knows his frailty can display. I pray it reminds us of our frailty too."

Russell Moore

"Struck is a visceral, haunting book that surprises the reader by driving them to a place of hope and joy. As I read Russ Ramsey's story, I found myself contemplating my own mortality, my own vulnerability. But due to the author's sharp gospel focus, that contemplation didn't take me to fear, but to Jesus. I think you will experience the same as you read this thoughtful, liberating book."

From the foreword by Scott Sauls

"In the beautiful telling of his own brush with death and the process of recovery, Russ shows us, in a most moving and lovely and hopeful fashion, what it means to find joy in the sorrow, beauty in the ashes, light in the darkness, intimacy in the fear, love in the losses, water in the wilderness, music in the sorrow, and yes, even life in the dying."

Kaka Ray

"Russ Ramsey writes from his own incredible journey of near-fatal heart disease in real time. I was quickly caught up in the journey with him and felt like I became friends with him and the fascinating people he meets along the way. As a therapist who frequently references and recommends books, I moved this to the top of my list for many of the hard issues that we all face. Russ is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life and leaves us with a peace that makes the unanswerable questions much less important. Russ combines Lewis's A Grief Observed, Keller's The Meaning of Marriage, and Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying in one place and gives us the head and heart knowledge for trials that we all are familiar with. I'm proud to say that Russ is as real in his roles as my pastor and friend as he is in this book."

Claire Gibson

"Struck is Russ Ramsey's raw, unflinching look at what it means to be a person of faith in the midst of physical suffering. Doctors should read this book to better understand their patients. Nurses should read this book as a reminder to leave 'trail magic' for the weary. But this book isn't just for those who work in hospitals. To those whose lives or loved ones have been struck by pain, trauma, or heartbreak, this book speaks boldly about grief and the recovery process. Russ offers no silver linings. Instead, he offers the truth."

Matthew B. Redmond

"While I don’t believe in 'must-read' books, you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't read this one. It's all at once well written and startlingly helpful. Beautiful and heartbreaking. And like all the best books, I think about what I read on those honest pages all the time. Struck reminds me of all the good books and it's like nothing else I've ever read."

Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock

"Russ Ramsey is a rare bird—a pastor who's written a beautiful and honest account of his own suffering. Because he tells the whole story with truthful words, his book is an affirming balm, a call to hope, and a help through stages of affliction for anyone who reads it. The afterword written by his spouse, Lisa Ramsey, is a wonderful bonus!"

Jonathan Rogers

"If you're not in the midst of struggle, one of these days you will be. That's why you need to read this book. By letting the reader into his struggles in a winsome and honest way, Russ Ramsey shows us how not to waste our own suffering."

Leif Enger

"In prose allowing the passage of light, Russ Ramsey blazes a trail of affliction and belief. No one hopes for the crucible, but this piercing account makes room for honest lament, complaint, and anger en route to simplicity and a faith purged of sentiment. Struck will hearten those adrift in the valleys. You know who you are."

Eric Close

"For anyone who is going through a season of affliction or is walking beside someone who is suffering, Struck, Russ Ramsey's personal account of his battle with a failing heart and his fight to survive, is a welcome source of encouragement and support. Struck will ignite your faith, strengthen your will, and give you hope for the future."

Editorial Reviews

02/06/2017
In this intriguing memoir, Presbyterian pastor Ramsey (Behold the Lamb of God) delves into what happened to his faith when his body began to fail. Three days before he turned 40, doctors told Ramsey that a bacterial infection had destroyed his mitral valve and he was in the early stages of heart failure. He committed to paying attention to all the experiences the journey would bring. Ramsey details the spiritual lessons he found in his ordeal, the distance he sometimes felt from God, and the ways in which he found himself reassuring loved ones who often took his affliction harder than he did himself. Ramsey isn’t afraid to embrace hard topics honestly, asking “What sort of faith could I honestly claim if I required the God I believed in to do only what made sense to this earthbound creature?” He is also endearingly vulnerable and humorous in describing the fallout of his affliction, such as when he vented an unexpected and unbidden string of profanity in response to a neurological miscue. This candid and compassionate set of reflections on suffering will appeal widely. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"For anyone who is going through a season of affliction or is walking beside someone who is suffering, Struck, Russ Ramsey's personal account of his battle with a failing heart and his fight to survive, is a welcome source of encouragement and support. Struck will ignite your faith, strengthen your will, and give you hope for the future."

Eric Close

"Russ Ramsey writes from his own incredible journey of near-fatal heart disease in real time. I was quickly caught up in the journey with him and felt like I became friends with him and the fascinating people he meets along the way. As a therapist who frequently references and recommends books, I moved this to the top of my list for many of the hard issues that we all face. Russ is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life and leaves us with a peace that makes the unanswerable questions much less important. Russ combines Lewis's A Grief Observed, Keller's The Meaning of Marriage, and Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying in one place and gives us the head and heart knowledge for trials that we all are familiar with. I'm proud to say that Russ is as real in his roles as my pastor and friend as he is in this book."

Kaka Ray

"Russ Ramsey is a rare bird—a pastor who's written a beautiful and honest account of his own suffering. Because he tells the whole story with truthful words, his book is an affirming balm, a call to hope, and a help through stages of affliction for anyone who reads it. The afterword written by his spouse, Lisa Ramsey, is a wonderful bonus!"

Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock

"If you're not in the midst of struggle, one of these days you will be. That's why you need to read this book. By letting the reader into his struggles in a winsome and honest way, Russ Ramsey shows us how not to waste our own suffering."

Jonathan Rogers

"Russ Ramsey's Struck is a refreshing and honest take on the emotional and spiritual impact of physical struggle. There is no way to prepare for something like trauma. As someone who has been through it, Russ's words helped me to realize the things I felt while I was going through my own season of affliction."

Kris Allen

"Earthy, authentic, and full of enduring wisdom, Russ Ramsey has eloquently documented his journey through loss in this personal story. Struck offers hope and honesty in the midst of suffering, displaying a life lived with an open heart before God in all circumstances."

Sandra McCracken

"While I don’t believe in 'must-read' books, you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't read this one. It's all at once well written and startlingly helpful. Beautiful and heartbreaking. And like all the best books, I think about what I read on those honest pages all the time. Struck reminds me of all the good books and it's like nothing else I've ever read."

Matthew B. Redmond

"My word, Russ Ramsey has done a beautiful thing here. It takes absolute courage to walk through trauma and affliction and then return to it for the sake of others' healing. This book will be one you treasure, return to, and know just the right time to give to your friends."

Annie F. Downs

"Struck is Russ Ramsey's raw, unflinching look at what it means to be a person of faith in the midst of physical suffering. Doctors should read this book to better understand their patients. Nurses should read this book as a reminder to leave 'trail magic' for the weary. But this book isn't just for those who work in hospitals. To those whose lives or loved ones have been struck by pain, trauma, or heartbreak, this book speaks boldly about grief and the recovery process. Russ offers no silver linings. Instead, he offers the truth."

Claire Gibson

"A good memoir is about the author but not really about the author. In it the reader sees themself, their experiences, their emotions, their life. Struck is just such a memoir. Russ has told his story, but not just his story. He has told my story of pain and grief and faith and fear and recovery and doubt and help. And he has told yours too. His story is of a medical crisis and more. Yours may be of a broken marriage or a lost child or a career in ruins, but it's the same story with the same hope. As you read this story of a stranger, you will see yourself and your loved ones in the pages and be encouraged."

Barnabas Piper

"Russ Ramsey has written a memoir that's as much about you as it is about him, because it's inviting and true to the human experience. His honest vulnerability and literary prose aren't simply talents, but offerings to God that beckon us to worship alongside him. This book is a gift."

Bethany Jenkins

"Struck is a visceral, haunting book that surprises the reader by driving them to a place of hope and joy. As I read Russ Ramsey's story, I found myself contemplating my own mortality, my own vulnerability. But due to the author's sharp gospel focus, that contemplation didn't take me to fear, but to Jesus. I think you will experience the same as you read this thoughtful, liberating book."

Russell Moore

"Russ Ramsey takes you along with him for the dark moments as well as the revelations that surface through affliction. His humanity shines through in this honest account of what it's like to get unexpected news and accept a new reality through suffering."

Samantha Fisher

"In the spirit of C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Russ has done us all a great service by chronicling his own journey into the darkness of grief and death and mortality. I'm so glad he recovered and came back from such a place to tell us this story—which is not so much about brokenness, but healing. This book has already been a comfort to me, and I have no doubt that it will be a comfort to many."

Andrew Peterson

"Russ has a way of articulating the complex intersection of faith and suffering that is profound yet approachable. In sharing this honest and beautifully written account of his own life-and-death experience, he succeeds in upholding both the mystery and confidence of the gospel, compelling us to take a closer look at a God who is as kind as he is sovereign."

Amanda Bible Williams

"His memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. Struck is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life we face, but it reminds readers that in the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity."

Facts and Trends

"A very honest, personal, and readable accounting of a Christian’s dealing with both the threat of death and the promise of life everlasting, this book is well worth reading."

Christine Farenhorst

"In the beautiful telling of his own brush with death and the process of recovery, Russ shows us, in a most moving and lovely and hopeful fashion, what it means to find joy in the sorrow, beauty in the ashes, light in the darkness, intimacy in the fear, love in the losses, water in the wilderness, music in the sorrow, and yes, even life in the dying."

From the foreword by Scott Sauls

"In prose allowing the passage of light, Russ Ramsey blazes a trail of affliction and belief. No one hopes for the crucible, but this piercing account makes room for honest lament, complaint, and anger en route to simplicity and a faith purged of sentiment. Struck will hearten those adrift in the valleys. You know who you are."

Leif Enger

"Russ is the kind of writer I wish we had more of in Christian literature. His prose is flawless, his voice familiar, and his theology true. Struck is his story, told with the kind of humility only a man who knows his frailty can display. I pray it reminds us of our frailty too."

Lore Ferguson Wilbert

"Struck is a visceral, haunting book that surprises the reader by driving them to a place of hope and joy. As I read Russ Ramsey's story, I found myself contemplating my own mortality, my own vulnerability. But due to the author's sharp gospel focus, that contemplation didn't take me to fear, but to Jesus. I think you will experience the same as you read this thoughtful, liberating book."

--Russell Moore, president of the ?ethics and religious liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

"Struck is Russ Ramsey's raw, unflinching look at what it means to be a person of faith in the midst of physical suffering. Doctors should read this book to better understand their patients. Nurses should read this book as a reminder to leave 'trail magic' for the weary. But this book isn't just for those who work in hospitals. To those whose lives or loved ones have been struck by pain, trauma, or heartbreak, this book speaks boldly about grief and the recovery process. Russ offers no silver linings. Instead, he offers the truth."

--Claire Gibson, freelance writer, novelist

"Earthy, authentic, and full of enduring wisdom, Russ Ramsey has eloquently documented his journey through loss in this personal story. Struck offers hope and honesty in the midst of suffering, displaying a life lived with an open heart before God in all circumstances."

--Sandra McCracken, singer/songwriter, God's Highway, Psalms, Desire Like Dynamite

"His memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. Struck is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life we face, but it reminds readers that in the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity."

--Facts and Trends, Summer 2017

"Russ is the kind of writer I wish we had more of in Christian literature. His prose is flawless, his voice familiar, and his theology true. Struck is his story, told with the kind of humility only a man who knows his frailty can display. I pray it reminds us of our frailty too."

--Lore Ferguson Wilbert, writer, Sayable.net

"A good memoir is about the author but not really about the author. In it the reader sees themself, their experiences, their emotions, their life. Struck is just such a memoir. Russ has told his story, but not just his story. He has told my story of pain and grief and faith and fear and recovery and doubt and help. And he has told yours too. His story is of a medical crisis and more. Yours may be of a broken marriage or a lost child or a career in ruins, but it's the same story with the same hope. As you read this story of a stranger, you will see yourself and your loved ones in the pages and be encouraged."

--Barnabas Piper, author of Help My Unbelief and The Curious Christian

"A very honest, personal, and readable accounting of a Christian's dealing with both the threat of death and the promise of life everlasting, this book is well worth reading."

--Christine Farenhorst, Christian Renewal, May 25, 2018

"For anyone who is going through a season of affliction or is walking beside someone who is suffering, Struck, Russ Ramsey's personal account of his battle with a failing heart and his fight to survive, is a welcome source of encouragement and support. Struck will ignite your faith, strengthen your will, and give you hope for the future."

--Eric Close, actor, American Sniper, Nashville, Without a Trace

"In prose allowing the passage of light, Russ Ramsey blazes a trail of affliction and belief. No one hopes for the crucible, but this piercing account makes room for honest lament, complaint, and anger en route to simplicity and a faith purged of sentiment. Struck will hearten those adrift in the valleys. You know who you are."

--Leif Enger, bestselling author of Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome

"In the spirit of C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Russ has done us all a great service by chronicling his own journey into the darkness of grief and death and mortality. I'm so glad he recovered and came back from such a place to tell us this story--which is not so much about brokenness, but healing. This book has already been a comfort to me, and I have no doubt that it will be a comfort to many."

--Andrew Peterson, singer/songwriter, author, proprietor of The Rabbit Room

"In this intriguing memoir, Presbyterian pastor Ramsey (Behold the Lamb of God) delves into what happened to his faith when his body began to fail. . . . Ramsey isn't afraid to embrace hard topics honestly, asking 'What sort of faith could I honestly claim if I required the God I believed in to do only what made sense to this earthbound creature?' He is also endearingly vulnerable and humorous in describing the fallout of his affliction, such as when he vented an unexpected and unbidden string of profanity in response to a neurological miscue. This candid and compassionate set of reflections on suffering will appeal widely."

--Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2017

"Russ Ramsey writes from his own incredible journey of near-fatal heart disease in real time. I was quickly caught up in the journey with him and felt like I became friends with him and the fascinating people he meets along the way. As a therapist who frequently references and recommends books, I moved this to the top of my list for many of the hard issues that we all face. Russ is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life and leaves us with a peace that makes the unanswerable questions much less important. Russ combines Lewis's A Grief Observed, Keller's The Meaning of Marriage, and Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying in one place and gives us the head and heart knowledge for trials that we all are familiar with. I'm proud to say that Russ is as real in his roles as my pastor and friend as he is in this book."

--Kaka Ray, LMFT, trauma specialist

"Russ Ramsey's Struck is a refreshing and honest take on the emotional and spiritual impact of physical struggle. There is no way to prepare for something like trauma. As someone who has been through it, Russ's words helped me to realize the things I felt while I was going through my own season of affliction."

--Kris Allen, singer/songwriter, winner of American Idol Season 8

"While I don't believe in 'must-read' books, you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't read this one. It's all at once well written and startlingly helpful. Beautiful and heartbreaking. And like all the best books, I think about what I read on those honest pages all the time. Struck reminds me of all the good books and it's like nothing else I've ever read."

--Matthew B. Redmond, author of The God of the Mundane

From the Publisher