Sandra McCollom, the daughter of Dave and Joyce Meyer, writes about her spiritual escape from her mental prison in I TRIED UNTIL I ALMOST DIED. Back in 2012, when she was 42 years old, McCollom realized that she needed to make a significant life change…or else. Plagued by physical illnesses and unending mental and emotional (self-induced) stress, she had her own “come to Jesus” moment when she recognized that her life was not working. Though she had grown up in a wonderful Christian home that wasn’t at all legalistic, McCollom found herself in a prison of her own making as she attempted to be perfect.

"Readers will appreciate [McCollom's] candid admission that even when you are from a background in which biblical truth is taught (and lived out), it is all too easy to stray from those truths and create a life of hardship and pain."

For most of her life, McCollom tried to do everything right, be everything right, think and feel everything right. It didn’t work. Clearly, as she reflected upon her life and faith in Christ, she knew that even Jesus wasn’t expecting of her what she had been demanding of herself. As she cried out to God to help her start living a life characterized by grace and not the law, slowly McCollom saw baby steps of change transpire. She confessed her perpetual (and compulsive) striving to her husband, and together they had a long overdue conversation with their daughters. McCollom notes that her own perfectionist tendencies didn’t stop with her; they bled over into her relationship with those she loved most.

In her two-part book, McCollom lays out what she has learned by focusing first on “Breaking Free” and then “Living Free.” In each of her story-filled chapters, she addresses commonplace struggles of life with which readers will easily identify, no matter what their personality bent tends to be. She begins by telling her own personal journey to freedom by tackling the typical tyrant of those endless expectations. Next, she explains what happens when individuals come to the end of themselves and how grace can bring the best type of rest to the weary in soul. Then, she brings a rousing word of encouragement as she describes how truly believing in grace means that everything in life changes when seen through this God-given lens of mercy.

McCollom also debunks the myth that trying harder is the answer. Rather, it is a thorough understanding that the grace-led life brings victory over sin; frees one from the weight of guilt; releases us from the pressure to perform; trades rules for relationship; pushes aside fear and makes room for peace; rises above trials and doubts; and flows out of us in love for others. Readers will appreciate her candid admission that even when you are from a background in which biblical truth is taught (and lived out), it is all too easy to stray from those truths and create a life of hardship and pain.

McCollom’s story will encourage folks who daily impose upon themselves a life defined by legalism and how she was set free from it.