The many challenges life throws at us do not shape us. How we respond to these challenges do. In "The Beautiful Disappointment" urban youth worker and author, Colin McCartney, shares his personal struggles in dealing with the murder of one of his staff, the death of a child in his program and his own near death experience from a paralyzing water accident in Hawaii. While the author was recovering from this life threatening accident in the critical care unit of Maui Memorial Hospital he slowly realizes that trials are "beautiful disappointments" God can use to purge us off all the false things we have allowed to disfigure who we truly are. It is through this "refining by trials" that the author experiences the intimate presence of God, a presence in our soul that frees us to reconnect to who we truly are as God originally created us to be. A true story that will leave the reader truly changed.