Losing Religion, Finding Grace. {A Lost & Found Book Review}

**Book received for consideration. All thoughts are 100% my own. 

Amazing grace, how sweet that sound!
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now I'm found.
Was blind but now I see.

We all know these words. There is perhaps no better known hymn out there. Even those who have never attended church probably know this familiar tune.

But when was the last time we really stopped to consider these words? How many of us have been lost? How many of us are still lost?

So often when we think about being lost, we think about those who are outside of the church. Those who are living lives full of sin, and have never found Jesus in their lives. It's pretty clear to us as Christians that they are lost.

But is it possible to be doing everything right? To be a good church going, rule following Christian... and still be lost? The new book by Kendra Fletcher, 'Lost and Found' tells of her personal experience of just that.

The "right" homeschooling philosophy. The "right" brand of theology. The "right" meal-planning, home-managing, keep-it-all-together parenting.
Kendra Fletcher, homeschooling mom of eight, had it all "right," until it all fell apart. In the course of eighteen months, Kendra found her baby in a coma, ran over her five-year-old, and nearly lost her eight-year-old to a septic ruptured appendix. 
Lost and Found is the story of how God used those events to transform her family's self-righteous religion into freedom in Christ.
Fletcher's debut book is the gripping true story of how God used suffering to save her family from empty religion. As wave after wave of crisis hit, the Fletchers discovered that getting religion "right" wasn't a good substitute for a living relationship with a loving God. Through their suffering, they learned about misplaced identities and false hope, and they threw themselves wholly into the arms of Jesus-where they found the grace they needed.
Fletcher, a well-known writer and conference speaker in Christian homeschooling circles, addresses the quiet legalism that so easily infiltrates Christian communities and exposes the dangers of focusing our hopes on the "right" ways of worship, work, and family life. More than a memoir, 
Lost and Found invites all of us to give up the things that hold us in bondage and find our value, worth, significance, hope, and identity in Christ alone.

In this book, Kendra Fletcher gives us a look at her life before finding her identity in Christ...and it probably isn't what most of us would consider to be the life of someone lost. She lived what she had considered a good Christian life--- following the rules set forth by her religion. She wore skirts and dressed modestly. She left her family size up to God. She homeschooled her children, keeping them away from influences of the world. Still, somewhere in that religion that she held on to and the rules that it put into place, the true grace of God was lost. I think if we were to look around, there are many Christians who find themselves in this same trap. For them, and for all of us, this book is a great reminder that it is by grace and not by works that we are saved.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While I have not found myself in one of these stricter sections of Christianity, I think it is important to remember these experiences of those who have. For me, it gave me a greater understanding of where they are coming from. For those living it, it will serve a great reminder that it doesn't have to be that way. And beyond that, it was just a really great story! I found myself reading and waiting to see how everything was going to turn out. In fact, I finished it in just one night!

Lost and Found is available to purchase now. Learn more and purchase a copy.