🔥 N.T. Wright, Shane Claiborne, and My First Book

I wrote a book!

Well, friends,

It has been a season. In 2020, I went to work on my first book. Its rough draft was mapped out before the pandemic.

Then, it happened, of course. In a year in which many of us need hope, courage, and joy, I held those positive things in tension with the pain so many of us know all too well: with or without 2020.

So, for those who may not have seen on social media, my book is called, Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain. Yes. 2020. Pain. A book.

We’ve all had a hard year. Truth be told, every year has its own challenges. Pain and trauma do not relent in a world like ours. Pandemics, injustice, exhaustion, financial instability, disease, relational conflict, self-doubt, and the list goes on…. We all experience suffering. But, the beautiful thing about Jesus is that he shows us how to step into our hurting world in a whole new way.

When I started this, I didn’t intend to let strangers (or friends, for that matter) in on the raw parts of my story. But, I sensed God’s invitation to be vulnerable about my own pain. Ultimately, these stories are designed to point to the Jesus who held nothing back. In everything he says, does, and teaches, Jesus puts on display the pattern for the type of humans we are all invited to become. Even in pain, we can become human like Jesus.

Two of my biggest influences, as I’ve sorted out the issues I wrestle with in the book, are Shane Claiborne and N.T. Wright.

Last week, I had the privilege to interview each of them. Shane Claiborne shared about following Jesus and our political lives. N.T. Wright talked about 7 human longings that point us, like Broken Signposts, to the reality that God is real and that God is love.

The influence of these two—very different! but complementary voices—shaped my last decade of life in ways that are hard to put into words. Without learning about the radical nature of following Jesus from Shane Claiborne, several chapters in my book wouldn’t exist. Without learning about the historical Jesus and his vision for new creation, you can cut out a few more chapters.

So, please consider checking out the book’s page (EchoingHope.com), where you can both pre-order it and read a sample. It comes out in March, in the middle of Lent, just in time to prepare for Easter. Since as it turns out, walking out of a grave happens to be the most human thing of all.

And here’s those interviews, which are available as both video and audio: