I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith

by Lecrae Moore

Overview

When the challenges you've faced threaten to destroy your life, how do you find your way back to the truths you thought you believed?

I Am Restored tells the untold story of how Lecrae's past nearly ruined his future—until he learned that the wounds we carry can have the potential to be unlikely guides to healing and freedom for ourselves and others.

Throughout I Am Restored, Lecrae documents the shattering yet hopeful story of how he faced the scars of his past—sexual abuse, physical trauma, addiction, and depression—and emerged more fully human than ever before. With remarkable transparency and vulnerability, Lecrae reveals that at the height of his professional success, his life was spinning out of control, driven by a past that he had never confronted and a religious perspective that was incapable of meeting the challenge.

I Am Restored takes an unflinching look at the personal and public spaces that are too often at the societal core of our pain and heartache—culture, politics, family, church, and more—and teaches us that forgiveness can be the birthplace of the life that God has created for us.

Throughout this powerful, deeply personal account, Lecrae shares the life lessons he's learned about:

• Confronting the pain and trauma that has shaped your story
• Breaking the cycle of sin and shame and embracing joy and authenticity
• Finding hope and healing in the midst of chaos
• The simple practices that can change your mental, emotional, and spiritual health
• Leading a life that's bursting with creativity and true freedom

I Am Restored is a hopeful, inspiring charge to start your journey to lasting healing today. No matter what your past has held, God is near you, he hears you, and he's not done writing your story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310358039
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	667,922
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Part 1 Facing My Own Chaos

1 My Childhood Wounds 1

2 You Look Like Your Father 23

3 Church Hurt Is the Worst 39

Part 2 Reckoning with the Chaos around Me

4 How Many More Lives Have to Be Taken? 61

5 Make America Great Again? 79

Part 3 Finding Hope in the Midst of Chaos

6 Is This It? 97

7 Opening the Closet 113

8 Unashamed in the Light 131

9 Owning Your Darkness 151

Editorial Reviews

08/24/2020

Grammy Award–winning hip-hop artist Lecrae delves into his struggles, shame, and destructive habits in this powerful follow-up to his 2016 memoir Unashamed. Lecrae writes that he used to see himself as “the tribal devotee addicted to proclaiming my own self-righteousness,” but after the publication of his last book, he began to feel like he hadn’t fully faced himself yet and realized that “accolades couldn’t hide the weaknesses of the heart.” He describes his life as “a wreck,” and says he turned to alcohol and pills to deaden the pain of long-buried childhood and teenage traumas. Lecrae discusses growing up in a family that felt “apathy toward pain and dysfunction,” suffering sexual and physical abuse, and his tumultuous “history with organized religion” and Reformed theology. To “rehabilitate life,” Lecrae took a four-month sabbatical from work, and he credits daily therapy for “revamping safeguards had previously torn down” and “recultivat relationship with God.” Lecrae also riffs on the current state of American politics, particularly the power of the Black Lives Matter movement and the nefarious effects of white privilege, as well as his own process of self-care and the ways he’s adjusted to celebrity, always returning to faith and his healing process: “I finally feel true joy. I feel the love that comes from allowing myself to be forgiven without constant shame.” Lecrae’s fans will love this. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2020

In this latest book, Grammy Award-winning singer Moore, author of the best-selling Unashamed, shares his own personal struggles, intensified over time by clinical depression, along with years of hiding inner pain from his fans. Making references to a childhood of sexual abuse, violence, and the absence of a stable father figure, Moore reveals an awareness and a concern for social injustice. One issue close to his heart is a conflict that he sees between the Black American community and law enforcement. Committed to following Christ, Moore begins questioning the status quo of evangelical religion, particularly in its response (or lack of response) to social injustice. This, along with a desire to push the boundaries of Christian music, causes him to lose many fans and other supporters. Through a long struggle with depression and coping behaviors that test his faith in God, Moore comes to realize that trauma has the power to heal and that everyone experiences God in a unique way. Readers who are familiar with Jefferson Bethke's book Jesus > Religion will recognize a similar development of faith. VERDICT This personal story of faith lost and found is especially recommended to Christians who are struggling to comprehend God's complex ways.—Chad Clark, San Jacinto Coll. Dist., Pasadena, TX

Library Journal