Overview

Whether you are walking through a season of loss or walking alongside someone who is, Holding on in the Storm by Dr. Bob Cutillo offers courage, comfort, and a deeply grounded biblical hope that speaks to the hardest parts of life. This healing book offers biblical reflection and wisdom for anyone navigating illness, grief, and the questions of faith that arise in suffering. In an earlier book, Dr. Cutillo wrote about biblical perspectives on health. Now, he shares the journey of caring for his wife through terminal cancer, exploring struggles faithful people have in facing illness, mourning a death, bereavement, and grief. This memoir is a sacred companion for anyone facing the loss of a spouse or other loved one. The book offers practical reflections on the hard questions Christians ask as they look for hope and healing through the Bible, prayer, and the support of family and friends. ""For those who long to know that they are not alone in the confusion that suffering and death bring, this is a trustworthy place to start,"" writes Dr. Curt Thompson, MD, author of The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope. Chapters are organized around familiar medical milestones: testing, diagnosis, treatment, decline, and the steps beyond death. Each chapter moves from honest storytelling to theological reflection. As he walks through the painful realities of caregiving and bereavement, Dr. Cutillo challenges readers to examine their own faith amid these struggles, and invites them to rediscover the unshakable truth that even in our darkest moments, God is holding onto us. ""This makes it a perfect book for small group study, both an engaging, heartfelt story along with a clear-headed biblical understanding of suffering and death,"" writes Mark Galli, former Editor in Chief at Christianity Today. This book is ideal for individual reading or as a gift to someone you know who is grieving.

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9781641802338

Table of Contents

Reviews

Clear, unsentimental writing, coupled with wise insights. Holding on in the Storm is not just about one husband's grief, but how he wrestled biblically in a culture whose approach to life issues seems so reasonable but is so often at odds with our faith. An engaging, heartfelt story along with a clear-headed biblical understanding of suffering and death. Mark Galli, former editor in chief at Christianity Today The struggle to hang on to God's goodness in the tough realities of suffering is really nothing new. What is different is the author's willingness to be vulnerable in our modern cultural context. Cutillo's story inspires the reader because he risks sharing his innermost thoughts, beckoning the reader to come alongside him as he asks the difficult questions we are afraid to ask. It is a hard but holy journey, sprinkled with unexpected moments of grace. But if you are willing to open your heart to feel the ache, you too will likely feel the firm grasp of God in the storm. Missy Buchanan, author of Feeling Your Way through Grief Bob Cutillo's Holding on in the Storm caught me by surprise. I have read many books on loss, but none like his. On the surface he tells the story of his wife's experience of cancer, which resulted in her death in 2023. He tells that story not only through his own voice but also through hers, quoting extensively from her posts on the CaringBridge website. But there is more than surface to this book. The story serves as an example of what marriage should and can be, ""in sickness and in health."" It also demonstrates Cutillo's extraordinary capacity for reflection, which integrates personal insight, quotes from great authors like Dante, Donne, and Bonhoeffer, many Psalms, and the medical knowledge he acquired as a physician into a larger whole. It is obvious that Cutillo is anchored in the Christian faith as few people are. What emerges is a profound book about suffering and loss. It is starkly beautiful, like a winter landscape. It moved me, and it called forth life in me. Jerry Sittser is a professor emeritus of theology and author of A Grace Disguised and Water from a Deep Well I've learned that in the middle of our personal storms, we often feel like we're drowning. What we need is someone to place the lifeline in our hands, around our waist, or under our arms. Grievers need a guide, a steady captain to guide the boat while we float toward safety. Bob's story is that gentle guide. With tenderness and clarity, he invites us into his life with Heather, their Christ-centered marriage, and their unwavering commitment to care for others. Bob's love for Heather, their mutual passion for service, and their deep trust in God's plan shines through every page. The personal stories shared, first by Heather and Bob together, then by Bob alone, are raw, emotional, and profoundly valuable to anyone navigating grief or supporting someone who is. My own storm included the loss of my father and my oldest son in a hate crime. When Bob described feeling like a ""dead man walking"" after losing Heather, I felt the weight of those words in my bones. Reading Holding on in the Storm brought me comfort, even eleven years after my own loss. This empathetic, faith-filled message will do the same for you. Mindy Corporon, author of Healing a Shattered Soul, Leading through Grief, and the co-founder of SevenDays Inc. and Workplace Healing Inc.

Author Information

Dr. Bob Cutillo is a family physician who has worked in faith-based health care for underserved populations in the United States and abroad. He has written and taught about how a biblical view of health can reshape our culture's view of life and death, leading to a wiser and more just health care system. He is the author of Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age. Bob received a B.S. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., an M.D. from Columbia University in New York, and completed his family medicine residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He has taught at several academic institutions, most recently as Associate Faculty at Denver Seminary and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. A life-long partner in mission, his cherished wife Heather died in 2023 after a three-year journey with cancer. Bob has two married children, Kate and Steve, four grandchildren, and an affectionate cat named Samwise Gamgee. When he is not providing support to low-income elderly seniors through the Handyman Program of Volunteers of America or providing care for patients at a shelter for the homeless, he enjoys playing pickleball, spending time with his children and grandchildren, and working in a small woodshop in his basement.

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