Bonnie Gray is the author of the blog called: Faith Barista.com
She is a beautiful gifted writer who has been on a journey of the heart and spirit as she faced hidden memories and experiences beginning with her first panic attack.
If you have ever been on a ‘spiritual journey’ you know what it is like
to venture into unknown thoughts, memories and feelings.
It is hard. Difficult. Scary.
Sometimes you have no choice.
I have been in this place too.
It is deeply disturbing and emotionally stretching
to move through the process of healing.
As she says in her book: “I only have whispers, etched in pain.”
Because sometimes a whisper is the only voice we find when doing this kind of deep work.
She opens the book with the concept from Jon Acuff that
somewhere in our lives or at some point in our lives
we stopped valuing rest.
We rush everything wanting the instant microwave finished way.
But it doesn’t work and in most situations we must
learn to slow down to rest… it is crucial to our health and healing.
Without rest we can become weary, sad and non-focused.
Even Jesus took the time away from the crowds to rest.
Bonnie says:
“Take the journey then allow your story and your voice to emerge from deep within.”
With a good therapist and an understanding husband.
Her story unfolded in ways she could never have imagined.

She has written the most moving and challenging book I have read in a long time.
It is vulnerable, real and emotionally deep.
I am reading it slow for it calls for reflection and non rushed time.
I am also keeping a box of kleenex very near as it stirs a hearts emotions.

I can relate to a lot of what she has written.
The lump in my throat and the tears close when reading her words.
When my own journey took place
I had no idea what it would be like or who I would become
when I came out of the fog and the road traveled internally.
My journey of healing took many long painful years.
Bonnie’s story is very similar.
It is not easy to go back where we have hidden parts of ourselves.
It is scary but as Bonnie says in her book,
“Jesus wants us to know there is no place we can find ourselves
where his presence cannot reach us.
He is right here.”
This is a book about a journey.
A journey and a path we do not walk alone.
With good therapy and a willing spirit the process can begin.
Bonnie says: “It’s time to restore our souls.
To care for what is tender, what is broken and what is fragile.”
She tells us that the desolate places are necessary.
Even Jesus went there.
He will meet you in your quiet healing place when you are ready for the journey.
It isn’t always deep and gut wrenching but it is still a place of healing.
There was a crippled man Jesus chose to heal
but before he did that
He asked him a very important question.
The question remains for us too:
Do you want to be well?
It is a decision and a choice we all must ask ourselves at some point in our lives
if we want to see change happen.
In order for us to move forward sometimes we must go back.
Bonnie shares her journey with gentleness, vulnerability and grace.
Through the rest she so needed and through the healing ahead of her
she discovered whitespace.
“Spiritual whitespace brings us to a different peace where we are real.” It is a “soul rest… an empty canvas with no pictures uncluttered.”
“Whitespace is a choice to convey quality and artistic value.”
“It is in the margins, unmarked and untouched.”
“Whitespace keeps the message from getting cluttered and draws
attention to what is really important.”
Healing… restoration… and hope.
This book is a beautiful story of wounds that are healed
and lessons learned differently.
As Bonnie says to all of us:
God uses all of our broken pieces to make something beautiful.  
God is making something beautiful out of you.

I challenge you to move forward and believe “that the other side of brokenness is restoration.”
“Making room for spiritual whitespace takes us on a journey to awaken our hearts to God again.”