Elisabeth Klein

World Split Open Elisabeth Klein

Jesus or no Jesus, Mitch and Jules Millhouse are a Christian couple whose lives are falling apart. Their marriage is hanging by a thread, filled with unmet expectations and unkindnesses aimed at each other every day. There is underlying abuse and addiction taking place but Jules is not at first aware of this which keeps them in a cycle of crazy-making behaviors that leaves them frustrated and beaten down. In the midst of all this, Jules struggles to know how to be a good Christian wife, mother, friend, anything in the middle of such pain and chaos; Mitch is in a job crisis as his drinking was the cause of a plane crash on his watch as an air traffic controller; their two teenagers are flailing; and Jules receives a surprise: a stack of letters that her deceased mother wrote her as she was growing up has surfaced, and its insights and guidance couldn't have come at a better time. Jules moves from beaten down woman, unaware of all that's really going on, to a woman on the verge of healing and answers. She is sincere in her desires for help and healing and yet she struggles constantly with wanting out of a marriage that is suffocating her. "World Split Open" will resonate with some, almost too closely, and challenge others' perspective that Christian marriages - and Christians' lives - just aren't supposed to be messy.