Recovering Life

Endorsements

It took a serious brain haemorrhage to make Colin Holmes slow down and reconnect with what was important in his life. In this moving story of his slow recovery to health, he invites us to pause with him in order to reflect about what we value most in life, and also how we live. Here is treasure mined from Scripture and the deep places of suffering that will fortify you to face your own challenges, as well as help you to re-calibrate your lifestyle.

Tony Horsfall, author, retreat leader and mentor

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Colin's story following a CVA (brain bleed) and neurosurgery while in the lockdown of the Covid pandemic.  It was honest and insightful as he was forced to stop and explore afresh the wisdom of the Bible and his personal faith in Jesus Christ. A journey of recovering life that is well told through the mediums of narrative, poetry and questions. I learned much from his journey of recovery and the path to life and recommend it wholeheartedly.

The Right Rev Sam Mawhinney, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (2023-24)

I love this book and hope to get copies for a number of friends.  Colin writes with beautiful style.  There are poems and prayers that enrich each chapter.  He gives a vision for a deeper and more rooted Christian life.  This is a book for the weary soul.  It is a book of hope.  It is a book I want to give Christian friends, to remind them that we are called to live grace-filled life in friendship with our Saviour and King.  It is a book I want to give to my friends who don't share Christian faith, to show them that life in Jesus is not a grinding religious performance but lived out refreshment.   

Paul Ritchie, Pastor, Limerick Baptist Church, and author of Is it unspiritual to be depressed?

With honest relatability, my friend Colin shares about the difficulties we all face in this world and his own personal journey into “the valley of the shadow of death”. But he doesn’t leave us in the dark. With wisdom and clarity, he shines a light on the path that can lead us through to the other side—to recovery, hope, and new life.

Seth Lewis, author of, Dream Small, Cork, Ireland

Because his illness happened in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, Colin reflects on both as he, like all of us, tries to make sense of personal and of global suffering. But this is not morose. There is a healthy dose of comedy as well as a firm foundation of hope as Colin helps us, whatever our circumstances, to draw on the resources which God has provided for us.

Pauline Wilson, biblical counsellor and retreat facilitator.

Colin skilfully interweaves black threads of despair and blue threads of lament from his painful experience with warm orange threads of hope and yellow threads of quiet confidence from his Christian faith. The resulting tapestry, presented in Recovering Life, draws us in to rest from our strife, reflect on what matters most and recalibrate our life's rhythm to the beat of a different drum. I cannot recommend this beautiful book highly enough to anyone interested in spirituality, emotional health or resilience.

Paul Coulter, Head of Ministry Operations, Living Leadership, and Executive Director, Christianity in Society 

Colin writes a deeply personal account of experiencing a physical challenge to his health and well-being which stopped him in his tracks.  However he spends relatively little time dwelling on the particulars of this crisis, and much more about the resources he found in the wisdom of the Bible to help remake and reshape him during his recovery.  His reflections on this journey are rich, restorative and rewarding to read.  I would certainly recommend this book to others.

Rev David Moore, An Tionólann, West Belfast.