The Heartache No One Sees - Sheila Walsh

Synopsis from B&N: At a time that should have been considered the highlight of her career, Sheila Walsh admitted herself to the psychiatric wing of a Washington, D.C. hospital. Having worked for five years as cohost of The 700 Club, the years of treading water while trying to keep so much around her afloat and keep various plates spinning left her drowning in a hopeless sea of clinical depression. Despite her best efforts, she simply couldn't will herself out of it.



Now more than ten years later, Sheila understands what it's like to be wounded. It has been the passion of her heart to study what God's Word has to say about this and then share her liberty with other hurting souls.


It took me over a year to read this book. I kept picking it up, reading some, and putting it down to think it over. And then returning to it again days (or weeks) later.


Sheila Walsh writes in an easy-to-read style and tells her story in an approachable way. I appreciated the “Application Points” at the end of each chapter, and the study guide in the back was good – if some of the questions were rather difficult.


I think this excerpt from the book really sums up the message:


Our very wounds, when offered to Christ, become beacons of hope to others. When you have had your heart broken, you understand what it’s like to suffer, to feel despair. You recognize that drowning look in the eyes of someone else.


Now is the time to live as Christ lived. Now is the time to love as Christ loved. You don’t have to be perfect, just perfectly convinced that love is the only way to reach a broken heart.


Sheila challenges each of her readers to face and work through their past issues and hurts. Work through them with God, in themselves, and, at times, with others. And then continued walking in freedom by reaching out and helping Jesus heal others.