Jessica Thompson's Everyday Grace: Infusing All Your Relationships with the Love of Jesus is a book that defies description. And it's destined to become one of the most important books in Christian spirituality for 2015.
Everyday Grace defies description as far as Christian books go. There are any number of books that address counseling, marriage, friendship -- but this book focuses on the place that Jesus must take in all our relationships.
And Thompson begins by saying Everyday Grace is anything but another Christian self-help book. Just because you pick up this book, there are no guarantees that our relationships will flower with the fruit of the Spirit. As she rightly insists: "While you may be following all the right steps to a better relationship, it doesn’t mean that your spouse or your friend is" (p. 7). Counseling and commitment can make a difference, but not every relationship will change.
What keeps us from understanding this is that most of us have embraced what Thompson calls "the karma mindset". We expect to get what we deserve -- and we expect others to give it to us. "An attitude of 'you give to me because I give to you' is terribly exhausting. First of all, I never live up to my own expectations. I am never really the friend, spouse, parent that I want others to be. This results in a pulling up of the bootstraps and trying harder. Second, not only do I fail, others fail me. So if I am looking to others for my own happiness, satisfaction, security, or acceptance, I will constantly be disappointed and angry. Truly my only source of joy can be my God, who never disappoints me and is the only one who perfectly relates" (p. 10).
The difference for Christians, of course, is that we love because God has first loved us. God's grace in Jesus Christ changes the dynamic of every relationship. That's the heart of Everyday Grace.
So this isn't a book about relationship advice. Each chapter is a deep theological expression of why Jesus must infuse all our relationships without falling into the trap of embracing a particular perscriptive path of how that must be done. The chapter on friendship reminds us that Jesus is the friend who will never fail us. The chapter on marriage focuses on Christ's love for the Church. The chapter on loving difficult people extols the help God gives us through the Holy Spirit. And those three chapters alone make this book a genuine must-read for 2015.
Unlike self-help books that bog people down in guilt because we can't get the checklist of dos and don'ts to work, Everyday Grace is a book of hope -- precisely because it keeps our attentions focused thoroughly on Jesus.
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I received a free copy of this book from Bethany Books in exchange for my honest review here.
Everyday Grace defies description as far as Christian books go. There are any number of books that address counseling, marriage, friendship -- but this book focuses on the place that Jesus must take in all our relationships.And Thompson begins by saying Everyday Grace is anything but another Christian self-help book. Just because you pick up this book, there are no guarantees that our relationships will flower with the fruit of the Spirit. As she rightly insists: "While you may be following all the right steps to a better relationship, it doesn’t mean that your spouse or your friend is" (p. 7). Counseling and commitment can make a difference, but not every relationship will change.
What keeps us from understanding this is that most of us have embraced what Thompson calls "the karma mindset". We expect to get what we deserve -- and we expect others to give it to us. "An attitude of 'you give to me because I give to you' is terribly exhausting. First of all, I never live up to my own expectations. I am never really the friend, spouse, parent that I want others to be. This results in a pulling up of the bootstraps and trying harder. Second, not only do I fail, others fail me. So if I am looking to others for my own happiness, satisfaction, security, or acceptance, I will constantly be disappointed and angry. Truly my only source of joy can be my God, who never disappoints me and is the only one who perfectly relates" (p. 10).
The difference for Christians, of course, is that we love because God has first loved us. God's grace in Jesus Christ changes the dynamic of every relationship. That's the heart of Everyday Grace.
So this isn't a book about relationship advice. Each chapter is a deep theological expression of why Jesus must infuse all our relationships without falling into the trap of embracing a particular perscriptive path of how that must be done. The chapter on friendship reminds us that Jesus is the friend who will never fail us. The chapter on marriage focuses on Christ's love for the Church. The chapter on loving difficult people extols the help God gives us through the Holy Spirit. And those three chapters alone make this book a genuine must-read for 2015.
Unlike self-help books that bog people down in guilt because we can't get the checklist of dos and don'ts to work, Everyday Grace is a book of hope -- precisely because it keeps our attentions focused thoroughly on Jesus.
__________________
I received a free copy of this book from Bethany Books in exchange for my honest review here.