Hard Faith: A Final Memoir - Paperback

by Ray Lopez (Author), Paula Gill Lopez (Foreword by)

From the author of Hard Knocks: Memoir of a Small Moment and Hard Love: A California Memoir, Hard Faith is Lopez's third memoir and picks up where Hard Love leaves his readers. Hard Faith describes Lopez's struggles and growing maturity as a Christian, husband, father, and probation officer. It tells of the difficulties in the church and trying to hear God's voice in declaring the plans he has for us. Lopez leaves the Baptist church after fifteen years and starts serving in an independent, nondenominational church that is pursuing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially prophecy. It covers the Lopezes' lives as double-income, professional parents and the challenging experiences while raising their children. Hard Faith explores the impact of 9/11. It takes the reader on some incredible journeys, like when Lopez and his wife, Paula, traveled to Peru to be with their daughter who was in a coma after being hit by a tourist bus. They experienced many miracles in Peru, most significantly, their daughter's survival and healing. Hard Faith covers his mother's stroke and the deaths of both of his parents, focusing on how God uses all things for our good (Rom 8:28) and brings us closer together. The book travels through Lopez's retirement as a federal law enforcement officer and his struggles with depression, and ends with the death of his sister-in-law from ALS at the age of fifty-four.

Author Biography

Ray Lopez is an evangelist, writer, and poet. He also works as a mitigation specialist in federal death penalty cases after retiring in 2016 from a twenty-six-year career as a federal probation officer. Born in Brooklyn in 1959 and raised on Long Island during the sixties and seventies, he journeyed through racism, Catholicism, the counterculture, alcoholism, drug addiction, hospitalization, and jail to find hope in Christ. He earned his master's degree from U.C. Berkeley in English in 1988 and has only recently returned to creative writing. Hard Faith is his third memoir, and he is presently working on his first novel, The Painter. Visit his website, www.memoirofasmallmoment.org, for additional information.