Holy Desperation: Praying as If Your Life Depends on It
When life has driven you to your knees, the only thing that works is prayer.
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Desperation has many faces: the addict who has hit bottom; the laid-off worker struggling to make the next house payment; the person who seems to have it all together but is wracked with fear, guilt, anger, or shame. We know we need help, but we are afraid to let anyone—especially God—see how broken we truly are.
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In Holy Desperation, Heather King demonstrates that, when we’re desperate, it’s precisely the right time to cry out to God. King, a survivor of addiction and other forms of desperation, begins with the basics of how to pray when you’re uncertain that God exists or when you feel that you’re beyond God’s reach. She challenges the assumptions that only the saintly can pray and that prayer ought to be tidy and nice. She reveals how prayer leads us beyond ourselves and into a life of purpose, lived for the good of others.
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Ultimately, Holy Desperation is an invitation to engage in bold, come-exactly-as-you-are prayer, offering a way forward, upward, and outward for anyone desperate enough to cry out for God’s help and presence. You are not alone.
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About the Author
I’m a memoirist, speaker and workshop leader. My titles include Parched (the dark years); Redeemed (crawling toward the light); Shirt of Flame (my year in Koreatown, L.A. reflecting upon the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux); Poor Baby (healing from abortion), and Stripped: Culture, Cancer, and the Cloud of Unknowing (going against medical advice).
I have a weekly arts and culture column in Angelus News, the newspaper of the archdiocese of L.A. [angelusnews.com], and a monthly column in Magnificat magazine.
I also speak nationwide, lead retreats, provide editing services, and blog at DESIRE LINES: Arts. Divine Intoxication. Faith. For more, visit heather-king.com.
