As I swiftly turned the pages of Lost and Found, I kept wondering, “If Sarah’s church family treated her differently, would she have taken a different path?” For me, the most upsetting part was how people responded to Sarah’s teen pregnancy. She wrote, “The letters started flying in. Some were lending me their strength, others were forsaking my future, and then there were the really ugly ones. [Like] the lady who sent me a blanket to wrap my baby in when he died, since she just knew that God was going to take my son from me because he was born out of sin. [...] Worse than the letters were the stares.” My blood boiled when I read that. Yet, most of us have been on the receiving end of hateful Christians. And, if we’re honest, quite a few of us have been on the sending end. “We make a very dangerous mistake when we make people feel like they’re not welcome at church because they’re pregnant, gay, or divorced,” Sarah admonished. “Then they go out into the world, and there are people who embrace them with open arms. Hurting and broken people don’t need someone to agree with them. They need someone to love them – someone to make them feel like they’re not alone. We all have our struggles. One person’s struggle may be homosexuality, and another person’s struggle may be promiscuity. We all have something that we’re dealing with, and we should work together to become better, rather than condemn each other. If we can find a way to show God’s love, even when we feel disappointed in someone, maybe love will be enough to reach them.”

As much as I would like to share more (and there’s a ton more), I don’t want to spoil Sarah’s book for you. Read Lost and Found like it’s a gift. After all, very few people are willing to bare their shame in order to heal your pain. “People need to know that they’re not alone,” Sarah said. “I’m exposing my life and saying, ‘I was there. I know exactly what you’re going through.’”