Spiritual Formation

Review: Weathering Change

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Cover image of "Weathering Change" by Courtney Ellis

Weathering Change

Weathering Change, Courtney Ellis. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514012826) 2026.

Summary: What we can learn from observing both nature and scripture about facing change, meeting it with courage and grace.

One of the constants in life is change. Yet, many times we like stasis and change is an unwelcome guest. Courtney Ellis writes about her book, Weathering Change:

“Here I’m seeking deeper and fuller answers to two questions I suspect are nearly universal. The first is this: Why is change so damn hard? The second is its deeper companion: How might we find peace amid life’s tough transitions?

She doesn’t think there are simple answers or formulas. Her approach is to listen to the “subtle instruction” of God’s two books–creation and scripture. Like her previous book, Looking Up, a book using her study of birds to draw lessons about grieving, Ellis invites us to attend to how various creatures in nature respond to change, particularly the changing seasons. She found her observations fell into four categories, around which she has organized this book: preparation, curiosity, adaptability, and resilience.

Preparation. By preparing, we are better equipped to deal with change. Stasis, periods of stability actually help us prepare for change, just as the chrysalis is critical to forming butterflies and torpor or dormancy for surviving winter. Forests brim with life, even as winter descends. Trees bud in the fall, with a bud scale to protect the bud until spring, when new leaves blossom forth. Young birds resist leaving the nest but must fledge. Every change is hard but takes us further down the path of our transformation until the resurrection. Our own fledging.

Curiosity. It helps, when we face change to approach with open-minded interest instead fear and defensiveness. It begins with noticing. Expert birders can identify birds at great distance by their flight signatures. Sometimes, in life this means curiosity that explores why we are reacting in a certain way to change. Like the Psalmist, we ask, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” Transitional spaces are like nature’s ecotones, where two habitats meet, both rich and dangerous. They bid us to lean into faith.

Creation is unkind to aging creatures, who become prey. Aging is also a human reality, the constant change we begin to notice in our forties. Curiosity helps us grow in our tolerance for the uncertain, learning to say “yes” to the next step on the road, though we don’t have a map of the whole journey. Animals often function in groups or flocks, and curiosity often means going to the flock for insight as we face change. Just as creatures know mysteriously when to migrate, we can trust God to help us know when to walk into change and to go with us on the journey.

Adaptation. Then, many creatures have adapted to urban environments. Life often takes us out of our native habitats and offers the chance to adapt to new ones, increasing our longing for our eternal home. Climate change confronts us with changes beyond our control. There are other changes like this, such as changes of loss, that call us to lament, and often to grieve with others rather than alone. Creatures adapt to winters that could kill them and resist until spring. Anna, in scripture, lost her husband after seven years, and fasted and prayed and worshiped until 84, and the day she met a child Messiah in the temple. Another animal adaptation is molting. We await the final “molt.” Meanwhile, we meet change and wear and tear with adaptations, New normals. From water molecules, we learn flexibility, that life finds a way and flows around obstacles.

Resilience. In change, we learn to bounce back and reach new stable places of flourishing. We learn to work with the wind of the Spirit facing the winds of change. Prairie plants often need to be disturbed to put down deeper, new roots. Decomposition may be unpleasant to sight and smell. Yet, it leads to new life, and so for us amid the breakdown of change. The final resilience is in endings, in finishing well, whether a season or a life. Our hope is that ending ushers into a glorious new beginning

As she concludes, Ellis invites us into a life of wonder that will take us through all our changes. Throughout, she has shown us how the two books of creation and scripture help us meet changes. She vulnerably takes us through her own changes, whether that of geography and career or navigating perimenopause. The text and the reflection guide that follows open for us a way of learning from God’s world and God’s Word that doesn’t make the pain of change vanish but enables us to walk through it with resolve and peace.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Beauty and Resistance

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Cover image of "Beauty and Resistance by Jonathan P. Walton

Beauty and Resistance

Beauty and Resistance, Jonathan P. Walton. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514012284) 2025.

Summary: A rule of life for those engaged in justice efforts in which beauty and resistance flow from a rested life.

Jonathan P. Walton is an effective ministry leader, a gifted communicator, and an advocate for justice. But a few years he was weeping in his car, stressed out and facing physical health issues. He realized he was facing burnout. His passion for God was expressed in resistance. But his heart was starved for beauty. Over a period of several years, he realized he was in need of the “scaffolding” that provided rhythms and practices to nourish his love for a God who was both beautiful and just. Like many activists, he realized that he needed to cultivate the depths of his life to sustain him in the work of resisting injustice. This book is the fruit of that process. He distills what he learned into four rhythms.

Rest: Working out of rest, not for it. He recognized that a component of his drivenness was a reaction to his family background–who he was trying not to be like. He was all about productivity but rest, date nights, and other activities of delight were missing. Walton re-framed his yearly calendar to work out of rest, with practices of beauty and delight for him and his family in every month. This also means facing dissatisfaction, despair, and desperation and bringing it to Jesus. Then he invites us into the light yoke of deliverance and discipleship.

Restore: Replenish your inner life for the work before you. Firstly, sleep was a priority. Then Walton discovered the importance of doing what he delighted in. For example, in his case this included baking and the book includes several of his recipes! It meant writing poetry he gave to his oldest daughter.

Resist: Seek individual and collective flourishing. He states that to be baptized is to be baptized into a revolution. Specifically, the good and beautiful rule of Jesus over all stands against our cultural ways of getting things done. Instead of all flourishing, for some to flourish involves the oppression of others. Walton flourishes in his efforts to resist such injustices through three prayers he prays daily. These are the Lord’s Prayer, The Prayer of Saint Francis, and the Franciscan Benediction.

Repeat: Establish rhythms to be a whole person in fruitful community. Walton uses Lewin’s force field analysis to identify the driving forces and restraining forces he needs to account for in pursuing his desired goals. Out of this, he establishes rhythms of rest, restoration, and resistance to pursue daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually. For the reader, he offers a chart of questions following this template.

Walton also adds another R that may be the first step for many and that is Recuperate. He gives the example of his own recuperation process from foot surgery. Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, recuperation may be the starting place to take the first steps into the four rhythms.

I appreciated two things about this book. One was that Walton has “walked the talk.” He takes us through what he went through, which has a ring of authenticity. The other is the joining of beauty and resistance, of formation and justice advocacy. Walton shows how the integration of these two aspects into a rhythm of life nurtures a sustainable life. Instead of either burnout or oblivious bliss, Walton offers a model of discipleship in which beauty and resistance nourish each other.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

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Cover image of "Make Me an Instrument of your Peace" by Mark DeYmaz

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Mark DeYmaz. NavPress (ISBN: 9798898020170) 2026.

Summary: A reflection on the Prayer of St Francis and how we might be transformed into instruments of peace.

Often in our efforts to communicate the good news of Christ, we focus more on the content of the message than the character of the messenger. Both matter, but in our time of conflict and scandals even in the churches, character matters more than ever. In this book, Mark DeYmaz walks through the Prayer of St. Francis, also known as the Peace Prayer for its opening line: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” DeYmaz believes that as we pray into and live into this prayer, we may represent Jesus increasingly well in our chaotic world.

He begins by offering a bit of history of the prayer, whose true author is unknown, although it is attributed to St. Francis. It first appeared in La Clochette, a small magazine, in 1912. He offers a threefold structure for understanding the prayer:

Section 1: What. The petitioner understands that instruments of peace provide antidotes to help alleviate internal and external human conflict.

Section 2: How. The petitioner recognizes that instruments of peace surrender self-centered interests and desires to serve the greater good.

Section 3: Why. The petitioner believes that the instruments of peace find fulfillment paradoxically through selflessness and sacrifice. (p. 15)

DeYmaz then walks through the prayer section by section, phrase by phrase, exploring how Christ works transformation in and through us.

First of all, DeYmaz links the opening petition of the Peace Prayer to Isaiah 61 as echoed in Luke 4. Specifically, Jesus speaks of the anointing of the Spirit upon him to preach good news as the one who comes as a Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). As we pray this petition and identify with the Anointed One, we share in his anointing.

Then, in the second part, we surrender self-interest for transcending goods. We break cycles of hate, including conspiracies and “enemy groups,” through unconditional love. Then we recognize where we’ve been hurt and wronged and “put pardon.” Doubt and fear pervade our landscape. Hence, faith that leans in and perseveres in walking toward what God promises offers hope to others. But many lack hope and despair. Lacking the vision of a destination, people despair and become cynical. But if we “wait in hope” with and for others, we encourage them that hope in Christ is possible. As we abide in Christ, we become lights by which others see in the darkness. Lastly, when we choose joy amid sadness, we spread that joy to others.

Finally, we pray into a life that finds fulfillment through selflessness and sacrifice. Having experienced the Spirit’s consolation, we walk along others in pain, remembering our consolation. We recognize that understanding between people comes not by trying to make others understand us. Instead, it comes through genuinely listening, asking good questions and assuming the best of others. Since Christ loves us unconditionally, we extend grace and unconditional love to others. We trust that God will overmatch our own generosity. Like Pope John Paul, who forgave his assassin, we pardon as those who could not have a relationship with God without his pardon. Lastly, we pray to live into the truth that only by dying to self can we save our lives.

Each chapter concludes with a few questions for reflection. Throughout the text, DeYmaz offers illustrations of the truth in each petition. And he shows how each of the petitions are grounded in scripture. The Prayer of St. Francis is one many have committed to memory to pray daily. C.S. Lewis, in writing on prayer suggested that we see prayers like the “Our Father” as structure on which we “festoon” our prayers. Mark DeYmaz offers substance by which we might do the same with The Peace Prayer. By so doing, identified with the Prince of Peace, we engage in a practice that day by day, forms Christ’s character in us. And that is good news not only for us but for our world.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Feasting on Hope

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Cover image of "Feasting on Hope" by Hannah Miller King

Feasting on Hope

Feasting on Hope, Hannah Miller King, foreword by Esau McCaulley. InterVarsity Press | Formatio (ISBN: 9781514011140) 2026.

Summary: Through her own story of loss, shows how Communion sets our grief within the larger reality of Christian hope.

I have been taking Communion all my life, since I was accepted into church membership, but usually only a few times a year because of the churches of which I was a part. Reading this book made me envious of those who celebrate the feast weekly or more often. In this book, Hannah Miller King portrays how the Table is a feast in the wilderness that often characterizes our lives.

However, this is not a book of lovely reflections on Communion. It is a book born out of King’s own story of losing her father in childhood and both the grief and the struggle that followed. She writes:

“Belonging to God’s family doesn’t replace our family of origin. It doesn’t erase traumatic memories or the ache of personal losses. But it does write them into a larger story of hope. Communion with Christ reorients us to face our various griefs from a place of safety. In him we find a home” (p. 7).

In a series of ten reflections, she re-traces her own healing process and its relationship to different facets of the multi-faceted wonder of the Table. For her, this was a journey that eventually led her into the Anglican priesthood, from only partaking to inviting others to partake. Beginning with hope, she explores how those living in the shadow of loss and the face of death find life in offering ourselves thankfully to the one who gave his body for us. Not only that, we are born longing to be seen. At the table, God reminds us that he sees us in Christ and embraces us. In all our bodily brokenness, we are met in the one whose body was broken, who is in solidarity with us.

But communion not only entails serious truths. It also is a gift of joy to celebrate. When we want to draw back, in George Herbert’s words, “Love bids me welcome.” However communion isn’t just me and Jesus. We celebrate communion in community. We both discover in it that we are part of a larger family, but also a family that sometimes pains us. Then we eat in the anticipation of the day that Jesus will heal all our wounds and fractures.

King experienced scarcity following her father’s death. But communion challenges our scarcity mindset as the place where one died to multiply his life in many. The Table is a place of hospitality in which Christ welcomes us by becoming the meal. Then the meal invites us to believe that in giving, Christ will nourish us. But giving also calls us into courageous belief. If I give, will I lose out?

Finally, communion speaks to our longing for our unseen home, even as King had longed for the home she lost. These words were themselves a glimpse of that longed-for home:

“In Celtic spirituality, there’s an ancient recognition of ‘thin places,’ where the veil between heaven and earth is especially translucent. Thin places are believed to create a particularly hospitable environment for sensing God’s presence. The Lord’s Table is such a place. We find it in grand sanctuaries with stained glass windows and in borrowed school cafeterias where new congregations gather. We find it in beautiful mountain towns and in war-torn countries; in national cathedrals and in illegal underground churches. In every place that God’s people gather to commune with him, heaven touches earth and we experience, in part, the fellowship that characterizes our forever home” (p. 137).

There are none of the theological debates that characterize so many books on communion. Instead, King ushers us into the wonder of our blessed hope, as Christ welcomes us to feast on him. And through weaving in her own journey through grief and loss, she helps us see how the table may nurture hope in us. All this helps me understand why so many who partake weekly or even more often are never ho-hum about coming to the table. And reading this piqued my own hunger and thirst.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: When God Seems Distant

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Cover image of "When God Seems Distant" by Kyle Strobel and John Coe

When God Seems Distant

When God Seems Distant, Kyle Strobel and John Coe. Baker Books (ISBN: 9781540905321) 2026.

Summary: How God’s path of growth takes us into the desert, the way it exposes our self-will, and how we abide in God’s love.

One of the things that often accompanies new life in Christ is a deep sense of God’s presence, what the authors of this book call consolation. Often, experiences of worship, Christian community, personal Bible study and prayer deepen that sense. Until it doesn’t. How ought we understand and respond to that? We wonder if it is something we did. Then, if that’s not the case, we double down on the things that gave us a sense of God’s presence. Or we look for new practices.

Kyle Strobel and John Coe describe how this happened with them. It felt like they were in a dry place, a desert. And they discovered that these times of desolation, just as much as consolation, come from God. Specifically, God takes us into such times to expose deeper patterns of sin. He also takes us into learning to abide in Him rather than engage in sin management or self-improvement efforts. We learn to trust God rather than experiences or a set of practices. But its scary, just like being weaned.

The authors then address the “self-willed spirituality” that the desert teaches us to unlearn. Over five chapters, they explore different ways the self-will manifests. First, they discuss self-generated passion and experiences of excitement and devotion to generate a sense of God’s presence. Second, they turn to how we deal with brokenness in our lives, either by coverups or by trying to “fix” ourselves. Underlying this is pride. The desert exposes these, inviting us to draw near to be forgiven and loved. Third, we resort to goodness, the path of moralism. We use goodness to win God’s favor and then struggle under the burden of conscience when we fail. Again, in the desert, God invites us to come close and to let him do what we can’t.

Fourth, we try devotion. The authors observe, “There is a massive difference between using God to fix your life and knowing that Christ is your life” (p. 124). Paradoxically, we can either use spiritual practices in a self-help fashion or as a means to wait upon God. Lastly, and this has been implicit throughout, we try to fix ourselves rather than let our awareness of our inadequacy move us to surrender, to openness to what God’s Spirit would do.

The final part of the book, then, emphasizes the alternative to self-willed spirituality. It is the spirituality of surrender, of coming with all the mess the desert reveals. It is drawing near, not to an idea of God but God himself. We come not because we love, but that he has loved us in Christ. The book then concludes with five paths that individuals and churches might take in response. Particularly striking were those addressed to churches as a whole that often fail to address the desert, and to pastors.

I found the honesty about the desert as a normal part of Christian experience helpful. Many of our churches make people feel themselves failing in some way if they are experiencing this. Rather, they should be teaching people “desert spirituality.” Also, the second part of the book was so helpful in identifying our self-help strategies that we embrace in pride, rather than bring our messy selves to God. Finally, there is the wonderful news that all this is to teach us to abide in and rest in God’s love, whether there are feelings or not. God wants us to grow into a resilient trust.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Renovation of the Heart

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Cover image of "The Renovation of the Heart" by Dallas Willard.

Renovation of the Heart

Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard. NavPress (ISBN: 9781641584425) 2021 (cover image and review are of the 2002 edition).

Summary: How Christ is formed in us as our hearts are transformed and six aspects of human life are integrated under God.

When I was growing up, so much of the emphasis of my church’s preaching was on becoming a Christian. As a young believer, I wanted to know what it meant to be a Christian. I wanted my life to look more like Jesus but had no clue of how that transformation takes place. By trial and error, I developed habits of scripture reading and prayer, sharing in community and worship, witness and service. Only much later did I encounter Dallas Willard, both in his works and personally. Here was someone who thought and lived deeply into the practices through which Christ forms our lives.

Fast forward thirty years. Once again, the deep need of our churches is to see people formed in Christ. The questions raised are one’s Dallas Willard addresses in his books. That has led me to revisiting some of the books I read many years ago. I need a brush up!

One of those is Renovation of the Heart. In it, Willard focuses on our hearts, the center from which we live our lives. If our whole beings are to be changed, then change begins here. For Willard, this means opening our lives to the grace of God in an ordered way as apprentices of Jesus. In the case of humans, this has to do with six aspects that make us human–thought, feeling, choice, body, social context, and soul. When each of these “are effectively organized around God” we become increasingly like Christ. Willard addresses these one by one in chapters six to eleven.

But first he lays some essential groundwork. He begins by showing how the heart (or choice or spirit) is central in our lives and how it relates to the other five aspects. Willard then describes how deeply sin corrupts “the ruined soul” and how the kingdom of God radically restores “sin-sick souls.” He then sets forth the process of spiritual change in each of the six aspects using the acronym VIM. This stands for Vision, Intention, and Means.

After applying this process to the six aspects of human beings, Willard discusses how we live this out in the world in two chapters. The final chapter, on “Spiritual Formation in the Local Congregation” should be essential reading for church leaders. The focus is Matthew 28:18-20. Firstly, make disciples or apprentices to Jesus. Being a Christian is nothing other than being a disciple. Secondly, immerse apprentices at all levels of growth in the presence of the triune God. Finally, transform disciples inwardly, so that the words and deeds of Jesus are the natural outcome.

This is a book in which to soak deeply. The questions at the end of each chapter help with that. This book is chock-full of insights into human nature and spiritual transformation that are substantive and enduring. Just as wise investment counselors teach people to get rich slowly, in a disciplined fashion, so Willard instructs us. Transformation doesn’t happen in a healthy and abiding way unless one engages all six aspects. The vision is for transformation of every aspect of who we are. Furthermore, this is so crucial for churches that center only on buildings, butts, and budgets. Then we wonder why people are so easily to co-opt. True apprentices to Jesus are not. They recognize how conflicting loyalties are dis-integrating. This book will challenge the spiritual diet of your church, if not your own life.