This is the foreword to Braving the Storm

‘When there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name’.

The poignant line from Matt Redman’s powerful song is so very easy to sing - and so very difficult to live. To bless the God of the heavens is easy when the sun is shining in a clear blue sky.  But when you find yourself caught in what seems to be a never ending downpour, when you are forced to turn your collar up and put your head down against the wind – now that’s another story. On the worst days, often many clouds gather at once. The author of this book has been battling with years of excruciating physical agony, exhausting plane trips to medical specialists, and a total disruption of his calling and ministry. I fear that if I had been forced to walk his pathway, that rain would have stopped play, and I would have given up, at least on hope.  

 I first met Eric Gaudion three hundred years ago (or so it seems) when we attended the same Bible College. His smile is what I remember most. Eric is one of those natural, warm gentlemen; he was always destined to be a quality Christian leader. What was not on the radar screen back then was the battle that he would with his health. I recently met up again Eric and his wife Diane in their home in Guernsey.

Eric tells the truth about pain. There’s no gloss, fluff, hyper-spirituality or clichés. The absence of them all makes me grateful, for slogans sting like salt on an already deep wound when you’re suffering. You won’t find slick answers in this book, or a satisfying, ‘they all lived happily ever after’ ending. What you will find is words that are written in blood, sweat and tears rather than just ink. You’ll look into the heart of a fellow traveler, who must have been tempted to slam the door once and for all in the face of a God who calls Himself good. Here is warm hope, honest empathy, faith that is gritty and authentic.

Read these words, and you’ll find yourself humming along with Paul and Silas as they bellow out their hymns into the midnight darkness. Open this book and you’ll find yourself in the company of Job, who was so pummeled by life but refused to throw a punch at God. Eric’s words are like a lighthouse on the bleakest Guernsey day.

Eric Gaudion knows how to sing in the rain. Surely his lilting chorus will be a lullaby of comfort to some, a stirring anthem of bravery to others, and a whispered summons to worship - whatever the weather - to yet more of us.

Jeff Lucas

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