I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know by W. Lee Warren, MD

Whenever neurosurgeon Lee Warren confronted Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in a patient’s brain, he would think, “I’ve seen the end of you.” A tumor that goes by many names, GBM is, Warren says, “a stone-cold killer… . GBM is pretty much the most malignant, mutated, destructive form of human cancer.” Warren knew, or thought he knew, that GBM unequivocally meant the death of his patients.

While Warren was growing up, his Christian parents taught him “to trust that God would take care of us and make everything work out all right.” But as a Christian neurosurgeon he confronted a spiritual and ethical dilemma that shook his faith to the core: “The Bible says to ‘pray without ceasing.’ It says that if you pray in faith, God will heal the sick. I believe that to be true. I have seen it with my own eyes. But at the same time, here’s a disease that God almost never heals.” How then could Warren in good faith tell his patients that he would pray for God to heal them and encourage them to do the same?

Powerful storytelling, agonizing case studies, and painful and enlightening spiritual insights—gained through Warren’s personal hardships of dealing with myriad forms of human trauma, divorce, suffering from PTSD after serving as a military surgeon in Iraq, and his son’s death—combine to make I’ve Seen the End of You a gut-wrenching read for Christians and non-Christians alike who are trying to reconcile matters of faith, doubt, and messy, broken lives that veer off familiar, hoped-for life maps.

With vulnerability, humility, and occasional humor to lighten the book’s intense subject matter, Warren invites readers to a life of faith in God: “Faith doesn’t keep us from having problems. It just gives a clearer view of how God is responding to them.” (WaterBrook)