How do we stay faithful as we wait on God?
The time after Good Friday but before Easter Sunday is one of the most overlooked portions of the Bible. We tend to rush ahead to the empty tomb seeking to find the resurrected Lord, but our lives don’t come equipped with a fast-forward button. We all face seasons of waiting where we long for a new or better future.
Peace in the Dark invites you to look again and acknowledge the reality of Holy Saturday. The example of the early disciples in those in-between hours offers a depth of wisdom about what to do when things have gone wrong. Their practices can serve us as we face our own disappointments, trials, and even traumatic experiences. There is a way to not just live but to experience peace when God seems silent. Rooted in Scripture, nature, and her personal experiences of years of trial, Jessica Herberger guides us through what was happening on that day, why it matters, and how we can approach our Holy Saturdays with hope and faithfulness.
Jessica Herberger is a writer and Bible teacher who delights in connecting faith, history, and human flourishing. She is the author of Break Bread Together and Life Surrendered and host of an online community, The Table. She is also cofounder of the women’s ministry Seasons Northeast. Through her writing and speaking, Jessica encourages others to pursue a deeply formed spiritual life, grow in community, and love others well. Jessica and her husband, Josh, live in upstate New York with their three kids, where she can be found surrounded by books and music, with her pup Winston always at her feet.
"In a world where grief and our lowest places are isolated, ignored, hurried, and even masked with rushing, distraction, avoidance, and excuses, Jess brings us back to the sacred paradox of living simultaneously in peace and pain. Her words brilliantly take the reader through the timeline of Holy Saturday and the personalization for us similarly in the ‘in between spaces’ of our lows and our highs. The spiritual disciplines of lament, rest, and gathering are woven into every chapter, gloriously reflecting the light within us all as believers and the depths to which Jesus lowered himself so we may find victory in and on the other side of our sacred loss. Jessica has given us a sacred piece of her beloved Paradox and the descents and ascents we all walk similarly, yet not alone and not void of his light. Brilliant. Convicting. Comforting. Amen and Amen."
—September McCarthy, author of (Why) Motherhood Matters, New releases with Moody Publishers 2023, 2024. www.septembermccarthy.net
"Jessica Herberger manages to take a quiet day that we know little about—Holy Saturday—and offers us a gift we hardly knew we needed. Through careful reading of Scripture and history, compelling narrative, and lived wisdom, she shows us what it means to grieve, feast, endure the quiet, trust what can’t yet be seen, and allow paradox to be an invitation instead of a frustration. Peace in the Dark will help you discover fullness within the emptiness of the space between the crucifixion and resurrection, and how—even there in the deepest darkness—Light remains."
—Adriel Booker, author of Grace Like Scarlett and Tethered to Hope
"Placed between the horror of the cross and joy of the empty tomb, Holy Saturday has much to teach the Christian on life, death, and the persistent challenge of living in the already/not yet. In Peace in the Dark, Jessica Herberger explores these paradoxes in a manner that is both profoundly reflective and deeply practical. Illuminating the glories of Holy Saturday with her evocative words and hard-earned wisdom, Jessica speaks gospel truth into the griefs and wounds of life with the deepest compassion and sincerest presence."
—Danielle Hitchen, author of Sacred Seasons and the Baby Believer® series
"Grief and silence, loons and the lake. Whatever the state of our heart and wherever we are in the world, we can learn a lot from Holy Saturday. Instead of forced rest, or an unplanned sabbatical, Herberger invites us to see our own stories through the lens of Holy Saturday. ‘It is good to look forward, but to do so in faithfulness, we must look back first,’ Herberger writes. This book is a path toward a quiet heart and buoyed spirit in the storm and an invitation to understand our own story and suffering in Christ."
—Sara Billups, author of Orphaned Believers and the forthcoming Nervous Systems
"With the heart of a teacher and a hope formed out of loss, Jessica’s words ring true and timeless for all of us who live amidst life’s shadows. As a mom who has lost a son, my soul breathed yes from beginning to end, and I hope we can all lean in to her invitation to put down our silver linings and dip our toes in the sacred nuance of the in-between, where hollow spaces can be holy places for God to dwell."
—Sarah E. Westfall, author of The Way of Becoming and speaker
ISBN 9781684262991
Pages 160
Dimensions (inches) 5.5 x 8.25
Weight (pounds) .5
