When It Hurts to Hope

"Each page of When It Hurts to Hope is a beautiful gift of truth and encouragement—a field guide for living well while waiting and for how to still hope when your dreams may never come true. Hilarious and honest, Rachel speaks into tender topics that are often spiritually bypassed in a way that is both helpful and hopeful. Whatever unmet longing lives in your soul, this book is for you in this season." 

—Meredith Boggs, author of The Journey Home

"Rachel addresses the topic of unmet longing with gentleness, kindness, and grace; the kind of grace you crave when you're in a season of waiting. Like a close friend, When It Hurts to Hope will meet you where you are, acknowledge your pain, and empower you to rely on God as you aim to live your life for him." 

—Mandy Johnson, writer featured in Proverbs 31 Ministries, Esther Press, and The Fellowship of Christian Athletes

"Rachel does such a beautiful job unpacking an issue we’ve all faced in our lives: how to deal with unmet longing. She navigates this topic with humility and grace, and anyone who reads her words will come away with a deeper understanding of God’s heart for us."

—Rachel Cruze, New York Times best-selling author and personal finance expert 

"If you are in a season of wrestling with unmet longings or maybe walking alongside someone who is, When It Hurts to Hope will point you to the One who fulfills our deepest desires to be fully known and fully loved. Filled with love, grace, encouragement, and transparency, the words on these pages allow our sadness and grief to coexist with the gift of experiencing the beauty of true dependence and intimacy with the loving God."

—Kathy Koon, Counseling Pastor at Rolling Hills Community Church

"This book is made for those of us in the in between, with hope deferred, yet somehow desiring to live with joy in the messy middle. Rachel so beautifully addresses the situations many of us find ourselves in during one season or another, giving us words for those lived experiences, and then graciously offering the tools to equip us through the waiting."

—Kelsey Chapman, author of What They Taught Me

"This book will not only help you find hope in the waiting but will also give you practical tools to empower you to walk alongside those hurting with unmet longing."

—Courtney Dyksterhouse, writer and host

"In her extraordinary debut book, Rachel Miller tells the raw, challenging truth about what happens when God doesn’t show up as we hoped and expected he would, and she provides tools for navigating life in the in-between. Miller expertly navigates third-rail topics like unfulfilled longing for love and marriage, the possibility of life without children, chronic pain, and unfulfilled purpose at work without ever falling into either deep cynicism or sanitized theological band-aids. This book is a must-read for anyone struggling with what happens when they’ve done all the right things, but their life looks different than they thought it would. When It Hurts to Hope is a masterful and important book for our time."

—Dr. John Delony, #1 national best-selling author, mental health expert, and host of The Dr. John Delony Show

"One of life’s great agonies is managing the tension between longing, waiting, and not receiving. Through her own journey and powerful prose, Rachel reminds us that God is with us and gives us a full toolbox that we can use to turn our heartache into hope."

—Ken Coleman, #1 national best-selling author of The Proximity Principle, host of The Ken Coleman Show