Shadows, Shades, and Brilliant Light: My Story

By Elaine Lewis

Life is a journey filled with long roads, stops, and travels. Not all journeys are breath-taking, but all journeys do end in a destination. In Shadows, Shades, and Brilliant Light, author Ann Lewis shares her journey from sexual abuse to becoming a victor. It was a journey from seeing the world with rose-colored glasses to seeing clearly from God’s perspective.

In this memoir, Lewis narrates how she lived through the pain of abuse suffered at the hands of her father and how she experienced an array of emotions and challenges. She chronicles the shadows and shades that molded her life, distorted her thinking, and colored her world. She describes how Jesus Christ came into her life and became the brilliance that diffused the darkness of her soul.

Shadows, Shades, and Brilliant Light focuses on how God used the crumpled life of a little girl and showed her love, grace, and healing. It recounts a journey of anger and pain into his amazing love and grace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973667865

Elaine Lewis

ELAINE Lewis and her husband make their home in western Nebraska where she is active in Christian ministry.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Elaine Lewis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP),

Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6785-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6786-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019909262

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/16/2019

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1     The Shadows

Chapter 2     The Shades

Chapter 3     Saturation

Chapter 4     The History

Chapter 5     Dispersion of Light

Chapter 6     Prism—Jesus’s Light

Chapter 7     The Brilliant Light of Jesus Christ’s Prism

My Hope

I

DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO ALL THE BROKEN WHO HAVE experienced abuse, whether it be physical, emotional, or sexual. It is my prayer that you will find resolve as you read these pages. Some of the things that I relate may never compare to what readers have experienced in their personal lives. There is always more to every story, and I know that there are countless who have experienced far worse than I have in their lives.

We have a tendency to focus on what has occurred in our lives. My prayer is that the focus will be on Jesus Christ. I also pray that you will see the faithfulness of God in my life and how He used the crumpled life of a little girl and showed her His mighty love, grace, and healing.

My hope is that you will read this booklet from my perspective, one that seeks to honor and adore our Lord and Savior. All that He has taken me through in my life are things that formed me into the woman I am, but more important the woman I became in Jesus Christ.

My prayer is that this booklet will be found in healing of mind, soul, and body. I hope it will be a new beginning and restoration will be found in Jesus Christ.

These shadows and shades molded my life, distorted my thinking, and colored my world. But when Jesus Christ came into my life, He became the brilliance that diffused the darkness of my soul. These pages recount a journey of anger and pain into His amazing love and grace.

Acknowledgments

I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY GREAT APPRECIATION TO ALL who have challenged me from past to present to write this booklet. There are many who worked together, family and friends who have proofread and given direction and guidance to me in the preparation of this book. I want to thank you for helping me and inspiring me to go on to present my story and to relate how Jesus Christ rescued me and planted me on a firm foundation.

I am blessed beyond measure by your friendship, your talents, your gifts, and your prayers in the preparation of this book. Thank you.

Chapter One

The Shadows

A VERSE VERY DEAR TO MY HEART IS PSALM 23:4 (AMP), WHICH says, Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me. That tells, in part, about the beginnings of my shadows.

Just what is a shadow? It can be an illusion, an emptiness of all sorts, and a hollowness. It can be blackness. It is an image cast upon light, a dark replica of something. There are the recollections of my shadows.

I was born into a predominately Russian German home. My mother’s parents fled to American in 1906 from Russia during the Russo-Japanese War. My grandfather became a citizen of the United States in 1937. He was a farmer and a carpenter who made beautifully carved furniture. My grandmother was a homemaker. They had eleven children; my mom was the tenth child. My grandparents celebrated seventy years of married life together.

My dad’s parents were German French. Grandpa Joseph was from southeast Nebraska, as was Grandma Mary. Grandpa was a farmer, and Grandma was a homemaker. They had two sons, my uncle and my