Death & Grief, Devotionals, Personal Growth, Inspirational 

Shadowlands and Songs of Light: An Epic Journey into Joy and Healing explores eighteen beloved C. S. Lewis books and songs from thirteen studio albums by the legendary band U2, all to answer one question: how do we truly experience the joy and love of Christ in our hearts--not just theorize about it in our heads--during times of sorrow and difficulty? In 2010, when author Kevin Ott lost a family member unexpectedly, he sank into a wintry depression. In the midst of those dark days, God used some unexpected tools--the books of C. S. Lewis and the music of U2--to transform Kevin's understanding of joy and reinforce the profound hope expressed in Scripture. These revelations not only pulled Kevin out of depression, they forever changed the way he experienced the love and joy of Christ. Shadowlands and Songs of Light will take you on a journey deep into the inconsolable longing of life--what C. S. Lewis defined as Joy--that fills our lives. Readers will discover how to turn that inconsolable longing into inconsolable praise that finds its deepest satisfaction in knowing God--an endless, epic cycle of discovery and re-discovery of God's love and wonder. Along the way, the book uncovers fascinating common ground between Lewis and U2 and their ideas about joy, sorrow, and deep longing for God. Readers will:Explore some of the most delightful and profound moments in eighteen C. S. Lewis books, including the entire Chronicles of Narnia series and many of his other most beloved fiction and non-fiction classicsDive into at least one song from every studio album that U2 has released since 1980--over 36 years of musicEnjoy a curated playlist format in which the book doubles asa U2 playlist. Each chapter focuses on at least one U2 song, and, track-by-track, chapter-by-chapter, a 16-song playlist is created. Each track of the playlist summarizes the major point from each chapter and works as a musical reminder. (No actual audio tracks are included in the book. Readers must download the music onto their own devices from iTunes or other music platforms and build the playlist using the book's guide of songs.)Journey through eight "Stages of Joy" that turn the inconsolable longing of life into Inconsolable PraiseLearn how to find deep rest for the heart in a "House of Longing" for GodDiscover why true Joy is not what the world says it is, but it is something more deeply rooted in the spirit than intense Happiness or Pleasure--something that can coexist with grief and thrive in the darkest trialsSee from the perspective of music theory brought vividly to life in layperson's terms why the music of U2 is so emotionally powerful and how it serves as a perfect analogy for Lewis' concept of JoyFind inspiration from the personal stories of U2, especially the tragedies that engulfed their youth in Dublin, and shows how they worked through that grief and discovered Joy in the process--a Joy that has kept the band together for 35 years and still drives their music todayThe book also includes:A bonus photo essay at the end of the book featuring a wardrobe once owned by C. S. Lewis. Kevin went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, which currently houses one of two wardrobes that C. S. Lewis owned, and took photos of the wardrobe. This Lewis wardrobe is the one that Lewis used as a model for his description of the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Kevin's photos come with an essay he wrote that explains how the wardrobe came to Westmont College and why the wardrobe is the one that inspired Lewis' description in the book.Photos by the author that he took at U2's famous 2009 Rose Bowl concert, the concert that was filmed for "U2360° at the Rose Bowl," the concert movie that capped off their record-breaking U2 360°Tour - from Amzon