Life After Why: Finding My Footing and Purpose in a Life Disrupter - Paperback

by Sheri Entz Blackmon (Author), John Ortberg (Foreword by)

This book is about overcoming obstacles. When a life disrupter strikes, it's common to search for reasons and formulas to obtain control of the uncontrollable. The author is convinced that a satisfying life lies on the other side of asking why, a life at the intersection of sorrow and joy beyond the need to control outcomes. A recent cancer recurrence propelled Sheri Blackmon into surgical failures, setbacks, and a search for a way forward. Her disrupter evoked dormant childhood trauma that obscured and complicated the process of moving toward acceptance. This memoir is not only a cancer story but also a story of a girl torn between two continents as a missionary child whose mother is a Holocaust survivor. It explores universal themes of loss, abuse, control, dislocation, being an outsider, and finding one's voice. It offers an honest Christian reflection on discovering one's footing and purpose within a framework of five discernible steps toward acceptance. While presented in five steps, acceptance of what is lost is not a linear process with a beginning and an end, but a lifelong engagement of the heart.

Author Biography

Sheri Entz Blackmon has BAs in religious studies and English literature from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, and an MDiv in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She was an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and served in church ministry for fifteen years before moving to Oaks Christian School, where she served as founding department chair, Bible teacher, and chaplain, and is now an English instructor.