148: Philip Yancey: Where the Light Fell

Episode • Mar 21, 2024 • 48m

What do we do with the painful parts of our life story?

Anybody familiar with Philip Yancey’s work knows that it has cost him more than time to be a bestselling author and journalist. It has cost him a lifetime of pain, loss, and deep spiritual struggle.

Philip intentionally waited until recently to write down his story to protect some of the people in it, but now in his seventies, he’s released “Where the Light Fell,” his memoir that shares all the messy details about growing and beyond - losing his father, childhood poverty, parental abuse, ruinous fundamentalist Christianity, militant atheism, a nearly fatal car accident, and more.

In this episode he shares how he managed to come to new understanding in the face of suffering. “A writer really only has one gift,” says Philip Yancey, “and that's the gift of his or her own life.”

Show Notes

Similar episodes:

William Paul Young: Author of The Shack

Amy Grant: Fame, Vulnerability, and Staying Grounded

Kelly Corrigan: How Vulnerability Leads to Connection

Christian Wiman: The Opposite of Faith is Certainty

Resources mentioned this episode:

Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link

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