Long is the Way

Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light...

How does the son of sharecroppers from the Jim Crow South grow from loneliness, bitterness, and heartbreak into a man of God living a life full of hope and belief in the promise of better days?

Long Is the Way is the dramatic, true story of Alton Hardy and his harrowing journey from the dirt roads of Selma, Alabama to the streets of Louisville, Kentucky and Grand Rapids, Michigan - back home, to inner-city Birmingham.

It is a story of racism, fatherlessness, sadness, loneliness, and a constant search for belonging.

It is a story about hope.

The road most traveled is the long way.

When Moses took the Jews out of Egypt, towards the Promised Land, they took the long way; the road less traveled.

Geographically, they could have gotten to Israel within a couple of weeks, but that’s not the route they took.

Why?

Because God still had things to teach them before they got there. He was still writing their stories.

As lonely and scary and dangerous as the wilderness may be, God allows us to go there because it is in our desperate neediness that He prepares us for the story He is writing with our lives.

Sometimes, the long way makes us stronger because of our experiences; more mature and focused because of the adversities and atrocities we’ve faced; and eventually, more confident that it has been God who has been leading us the whole way.

The long way still gets you there.

The details may be different, but Alton's story isn't unlike yours. Most of the time, it might seem like you're moving backwards, but that just means your story is still being written.

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THE AUTHORS

Alton Hardy (left) is an ordained teaching elder of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). He has been a pastor, church-planter, community leader, and bridge-builder for nearly two decades.

Billy Ivey (right) is a writer, creative director, and co-founder of Small Stories Studio in Birmingham, Alabama.

"This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching and deeply inspiring book..."

DAN T. CATHY | CHAIRMAN, CHICK-FIL-A, INC.

"This is one of the most moving stories of grace I have ever read. It is a memoir, a testimony, an autobiography, but it reads like a John Grisham novel. This book will awaken you afresh to the realities that must not be forgotten related to poverty, racism, brokenness, hatred, suffering, and pain. But it will also awaken you afresh to reality of God, His love, His power, His sovereignty, and His unfathomable ways."

BOB FLAYHART | SENIOR PASTOR, OAK MOUNTAIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM, AL

"... a shining memoir of reconciliation - from black and white to full Kingdom color. If racism is the new Goliath, as pastor Hardy suggests, then Hardy is one of God's new Davids and his book is a slingshot."

DAVE BEELAN | FORMER LEAD PASTOR, MADISON SQUARE CRC, GRAND RAPIDS, MI

"The hand of God working out all things for His glory and his children's good creates beauty from the ashes of a young man in Sardis, Alabama."

HERBIE NEWELL | PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIFELINE CHILDREN'S SERVICES

We're traveling together.

Alton Hardy's beautiful memoir reminds us how far we've come, and the great distances we still have to go. Together.

Long Is The Way asks the question: Has there ever truly been a manifold of God's people — from every race, color, tongue, and tribe — standing in gospel unity?

Long is the way, indeed.