We all have past experiences we wish we could redo, undo, or hide altogether. In Nothing Wasted, counselor and teacher Kasey Van Norman shares how God revealed his specific plan for her life through the most unlikely, embarrassing, and painful seasons of her past. Her vulnerability invites you to discover God’s personal and purposeful design for your future, not in spite of your story, … but through it.
What if the pain and mistakes of your past are exactly what God wants to use to redeem your future?
A difficult childhood, public infidelity, and a fight with cancer – Kasey Van Norman has walked a rocky road of regret and loss. Shockingly, God would take her back to move her forward, uprooting her undealt-with wounds, secret shame, and intimacy-sabotaging patterns of behavior. No longer running from her past, but instead, allowing herself to be defined by it, Kasey discovered a God more intentional and loving than she’d ever believed him to be. Today, she shares the truth that no part of our life story is wasted – but purposefully designed and used by God to shape who we are meant to be.
With vulnerability, sound doctrine, and humor, Kasey unfolds the brokenness in her own life, reminding us that a holy, sovereign God lovingly works, not in spite of our past, but through it. In this book, Kasey invites you to look at the most unlikely, shocking, and painful experiences of your past in order to embrace them as the necessary setup for your future. No experience or relationship has been a mistake. You are no mere byproduct of random events, and you do not need a do-over! Join Kasey, and take God up on his offer to weave together every confusing, disjointed scrap of your past in to his beautiful story of redemption.
Because with God, nothing is wasted.
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“God doesn’t waste the wounds we’ve buried. He orchestrates events to resurface them for healing.” – Kasey Van Norman
Kasey bares all to demonstrate that we simply are not powerful enough to derail God’s plans for our lives. Our choices and circumstances may take us on journeys that seem so far off course that we can never get back on track. Sometimes we must revisit old hurts repeatedly to see the road ahead of us clearly. Just like any good adventure, God can join those wayward paths to the one we are destined for and create a beautiful scene far beyond our wildest dreams. He is the God of restoration and peace. Absolutely nothing is wasted. Join Kasey as she masterfully ties her own journey of restoration and redemption to God’s promises.
Sometimes we feel that our lives have come to a place where we’re sure nothing good can come out of what’s been thrown at us. Author Kasey Van Norman shares her heart in the most honest way in “Nothing Wasted: God Uses the Stuff You Wouldn’t.”
I have read some of Kasey’s earlier work, but “Nothing Wasted” comes from a personal, gritty place and doesn’t sugar coat her challenges. She highlights past struggles and family issues that she walked through and survived–able to see God’s provision, direction and restoration of things she knew were missteps or tragedies. While we often focus on all that’s gone wrong (sometimes due to choices of our own, sometimes not), God is focusing on how He can use the “raw materials for the new thing He is building.”
Van Norman writes in a way that is at once overwhelming in its vulnerability while still allowing the reader to see aspects of the book in their own lives. It’s like Van Norman is a tour guide, leading us through her mess into the beautiful place God has turned it into. She’s open, humbled by her challenges and allows the reader to decide for themselves how best to accept God’s renovations in their situation.
Van Norman also delves into her childhood and upbringing to find possible reasons for choices she made later in life. We can forget that our formative years also set the stage for how we handle things like conflict, poverty and acceptance of others in our later lives.
While “Nothing Wasted” is a difficult read for many reasons, it is also one that offers the salve of what God can do when we bring our broken pieces to Him. Van Norman is an amazing speaker and teacher whom I have had the opportunity to hear speak before, and this book, while dealing with tough issues, can certainly move others towards seeking healing and help. Let’s not whitewash our trials or struggles, let’s face them, find new hope and continue to change for the better.
Here’s another favorite quote: “God knows that the closer we are to Him, the closer we are to who we’re meant to be. He proves this over and over inside our stories, in our ever-changing scenes and settings, with all of our heroes and villains, through our comedic blunders, and in our climactic events.”
I am thankful for being able to read this book early. It was affecting and heartwrenching, but worth the read. “Not Wasted” is also set to have a companion Bible study very soon, too. I am excited to get my copy in my hands!
I was an early reader, thanks to the Zondervan. All opinions are my own and I chose to leave a review.
“I don’t know how not to love you.”
The title of the book does not prepare you for the contents. It is an emotional and spiritual journey, It’s Kasey Van Norman’s story. Her story is a tumultuous journey to find authentic love.
The book is honest, open, transparent and sometimes too real for this book to be a quiet afternoon read. It is full of heart ache, suffering and anger that through the grace of God and the love of a husband who trusted God came to the climax of finding the authentic love she desperately wanted.
God did not know how to not love her. God put her on a path to share the truths in her book with others, so they would know that with the Father, Nothing is Wasted.
Well worth the read!
Well written,5 Star Book
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WOW!!! Not sure how many times you have to “meet” someone to call them a friend…but I consider Kasey a friend of mine and can’t wait for everyone to meet her and see her heart for God and for others to see their stories through His eyes. What a powerful book on how God can use everything from your past to show others how marvelous He is. After reading this book I am so excited to see how God will use my story to help others. Thank you Kasey and Justin for being so open and honest.