Four years ago, author and international speaker Carol Kent and her husband Gene received a late-night phone call: Their only child, J. P., a 25-year-old exemplary Navy officer and Christian, had hunted down and murdered his wife's ex-husband. "There are some tragedies that are too big for a heart to hold, and they defy any description that makes sense," Kent writes. She later adds, "Where was God on the Sunday afternoon when my son shot Douglas Miller Jr.?"

Her son's crime and his life sentence without parole forever changed their lives. As the Kents cashed in their retirement funds and rallied to support him, they lost many of their ideals of what the perfect Christian life would hold. But they discovered the power of Christian community and God's faithfulness.

Kent uses her story as a springboard to help others cope with devastating circumstances. Each chapter ends with thought-provoking questions for readers working through their own situations.

The pain still leaks through every page ("I am the mother of a murderer"), but Kent's faith in God also shines through, illuminating her belief that "when God seems the most absent, he is the most present."

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also posted today is an excerpt from When I Lay My Isaac Down.

When I Lay My Isaac Down is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More information is available from the publisher.

Christianity Today sister publication Today's Christian Woman interviewed Kent in 2001 and again in their current issue.

Coverage of the Kent trial is available from CourtTV (background) and The News Herald.

Author Carol Kent is president of Speak Up Speaker Services.