Proudly going against the grain.

Not having the same passion.

by Mike LaChance , The Gateway Pundit: A teacher from Indiana has resigned from her job after it was noticed that she wore a t-shirt with the numbers ‘8647’ on it during a school trip to Washington, DC. The number 8647 is typically understood as meaning to imply that Trump should be assassinated. It was […]

In just minutes, the Life Story Club in New York City springs to life. On Zoom, a mosaic of faces — each with decades of lived experience — leans in as Bernd, a retired urban planner for the Bronx and Manhattan, recalls how the pandemic nudged him into new passions: playing jazz harmonica and taking up woodworking. “It’s a social event,” he animatedly describes his woodworking group. “We talk and sing together while we make art.”  Prompted by Ezra Guerin Gates, Life Story Club’s warm and thoughtful program manager, the conversation blossoms. The prompt: share a time when you stumbled into a new interest. Bernd’s story unlocks a floodgate — Wanda reminisces about playing the flute, Victor beams as he describes his passions for Broadway and pickleball, and Susan, an artist, recounts how a lump of clay sparked a love for ceramics so strong that her home is now filled with her creations. (To protect against elder fraud, Life Story Club shares only participants’ first names.) Life Story Club offers small-group storytelling circles where older adults — many homebound or isolated — share their lives through weekly themed conversations. Courtesy of Life Story Club The six-member group meets weekly as part of the Institute for Family Health’s community programming, connecting residents of collocated clinics and affordable housing sites. There’s a lot of laughter and affirmation, but the meetings are also medicine.  “I really do need this contact with people,” Bernd admits. “Hearing your stories — feeling connected — is so important to me. I was skeptical, especially being the only man in the group at first. But I’ve discovered we have so much in common.” Susan nods. “I didn’t know how much I needed Life Story Club until I joined.” Weighed down by negative news? Our smart, bright, weekly newsletter is the uplift you’ve been looking for. [contact-form-7] Loneliness is more than a personal struggle; it’s a public health crisis. A recent Harvard study found that one in five Americans regularly feels lonely, with the number even higher among young adults and seniors. Isolation doesn’t just affect mental health; it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia and early death. And not only does loneliness shorten lives — it diminishes their quality, contributing to higher rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. With $6.7 billion in Medicare costs linked to loneliness each year, headlines sound the alarm, yet solutions remain scarce. The NYC-based nonprofit Life Story Club offers a profoundly human response: small-group storytelling circles where older adults — many homebound or isolated — share their lives through weekly themed conversations. Whether in person, by phone or over Zoom, members laugh, cry, reflect and build lasting bonds. Life Story Club includes 26 clubs across New York and Cleveland. Courtesy of Life Story Club Founded in 2019 by Lily Zhou, Life Story Club has grown to include 26 clubs across New York and Cleveland, conducted in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin. And it’s working: 82 percent of participants report feeling less lonely, 95 percent feel happier and supported and 100 percent report feeling a sense of community. Some say it’s the first time they’ve felt heard in years. “I’ve seen loneliness break people, especially older adults, and our society continues to marginalize them,” says Life Story Club’s interim executive director, psychologist Jenn Wong, who previously was the inaugural director of Wallis Annenberg GenSpace and helped shape California’s Master Plan on Aging. “The pandemic showed us that no one is immune to isolation, no matter how resourced they are. So the question becomes: How do we build around that and foster real connection?”  The need for human interaction is hardwired into our biology. Study after study has demonstrated that people with strong social ties live longer, happier and healthier lives. A 2023 study from the National Academy of Sciences found that individuals with robust social networks have lower levels of stress, better immune function and even improved cognitive health. To make the Life Story Club accessible to older adults who are the least connected, anybody can join for free, and the organization partners with community organizations like Citymeals on Wheels and other nonprofits that support older adults. But to include “the really homebound super isolated folks,” as Wong puts it, doctors can prescribe Story Rx for their patients. In partnership with health care systems like Montefiore and Cleveland Clinic, Life Story Club connects the most isolated seniors to storytelling groups as a social prescription — an innovative way to treat loneliness as the public health crisis it is. Working with health care providers has the extra advantage that “we have accurate data about measuring social belonging and connectedness,” says Wong. Overall, Story Rx reaches more than 1,200 people over 60. The facilitators are trained in emergency mental health and can connect with a health care provider if they think a participant is at risk. Eighty-two percent of Life Story Club participants report feeling less lonely, and 100 percent report feeling a sense of community. Courtesy of Life Story Club Some clubs focus on a theme, for instance, in partnership with the public library, a Brooklyn group focused on music and created its own playlist. Others swap recipes or compile cookbooks. “Every club is different,” Wong shares. “My favorite is when our facilitators are tapping into the wisdom and experience of our older storytellers. One facilitator was struggling with whether to attend an event by herself, and out came these amazing stories about people overcoming their fears, including a woman named Marion who had always wanted to go to the ballet. She finally decided to take herself for her 80th birthday, got all dressed up and had a great time.” The seed for Life Story Club was planted when founder Lily Zhou returned to China in 2018 after 11 years in the U.S.. She discovered a family tree book that traced the family lineage back to the 1600s, brimming with stories of her ancestors. “My father had lost touch with his family during Mao’s Cultural Revolution,” she recalls. “I returned to Brooklyn inspired to preserve and share the life stories of the older adults around me. These aren’t generations to be discarded — they are living legacies that must be heard, valued and celebrated.” In high school in Beijing, she had led the Interact Club, the junior division of Rotary International, where she organized food drives, tutored children and visited nursing homes. She noticed that the signup sheet for the senior homes was always the shortest. “More often than not, I was the only one who volunteered to go,” she says. “Looking back, I think this pull toward older adults came from growing up oceans away from my own grandparents. As a child of immigrants, I longed for the stability and wisdom of an elder mentor.” Even while working in financial research and policy in New York City, she volunteered in memory units and nursing homes. “Many of the residents were experiencing deep loneliness, spending long stretches of time without visitors or meaningful interaction,” she says. “Many couldn’t write due to arthritis or numbness, so we gathered in a circle and shared stories aloud, while I recorded [these] stories to share with loved ones. The impact was immediate. As we shared personal stories, we built bridges — laughing, crying, connecting deeply. It was clear something powerful was happening.” Wait, you're not a member yet? Join the Reasons to be Cheerful community by supporting our nonprofit publication and giving what you can. Join Cancel anytime Eventually, she quit her job to dedicate herself to storytelling full-time. “I traversed the city — while pregnant with my second child — running story clubs in pockets of the city that were often overlooked: in affordable housing sites, senior centers tucked into church basements and with housing-insecure older adults.” Then the pandemic struck and the need for connection became even more urgent. “Loneliness is as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, increasing the risk of dementia by 50 percent and cardiovascular disease by 30 percent,” Zhou knows. “This is why the Surgeon General declared the epidemic a public health emergency and considers tackling loneliness the moonshot challenge of our time.” Today Life Story Club runs programs in every borough of NYC and envisions taking the program nationwide. Seven full-time group facilitators give prompts designed to foster active listening, empathy and reciprocity, for instance: “What was the greatest historical event you lived through?” or “Did your parents have a story about you they loved to tell?” A piece of art created by Life Story Club participant Wanda. Courtesy of Life Story Club About once every quarter, Life Story Club records stories for its public library that participants can then share with others, including their families or friends. Back at the Institute for Family Health, the weekly group is digging deeper. Guerin Gate asks a tender question: Tell us about a time you felt lost — and then found your way again. Wanda’s deep voice holds the room still as she recounts lying in bed for two and a half days, curled up, no physical pain, just profound grief after losing her hair from chemotherapy. Then, she turned to a porcelain doll she’d had for years — a Black doll with a serene, chunky smile. “I dressed her, gave her a mudcloth skirt and took some of the hair I had lost and put it on her,” she recounts with a smile. “That beautiful chunky smile on her face reminds me daily that it’s okay.” She ends with a song that uplifts her, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” the R&B number by McFadden & Whitehead. Victor immediately chimes in with memories of learning the Electric Slide line dance, and they make plans to soon meet in person.  “My hope for all of us is to live in neighborhoods and cities where older adults are seen, heard and valued,” Zhou explains. “We all have an older adult in our lives — and if we’re lucky, we’ll grow old ourselves. My ask to others: Let’s build a world that continues to value us as we age, a world where dignity and connection have no expiration date.” The post The Older Adults Conquering Loneliness Through Storytelling appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

Whether planned or unplanned, children are a gift from the Lord. The biblical doctrine of creation encourages us to uphold a pro-natalist (i.e., pro-birth) view, so we should remain resolute in affirming the unqualified goodness of children. However, modern medical technology confronts the church with weighty questions regarding the methods of procreation. Surrogacy is a form of reproductive technology in which a third party carries a pregnancy for the intended parent(s). Usually, it’s for a couple or individual who cannot conceive naturally, including infertile men or women, partnerless individuals, and LGBT+ couples. Traditional surrogacy uses the surrogate’s own egg with sperm from the intended father or a donor, often via intrauterine insemination (IUI) rather than in vitro fertilization (IVF). In gestational surrogacy, now the dominant form, the surrogate mother is impregnated through IVF with the eggs of the “intended mother” (or an egg donor) and the sperm of the “intended father” (or a sperm donor), so the surrogate has no genetic relation to the child. Surrogacy is a contested ethical issue among godly, evangelical Christians. I know faithful believers who’ve supported and participated in surrogacy. Far from a being theoretical debate, surrogacy affects real human beings made in God’s image. Advocating against such reproductive technologies is advocating against the possibility for some people to become biological parents. And as with infertility or childlessness, this can be severely painful. The topic should be handled with pastoral care and a sense of its weightiness. IVF and Surrogacy The practices of surrogacy and IVF are deeply interconnected, often yielding similar responses from evangelicals. IVF can be discussed apart from surrogacy, but surrogacy—at least in the predominate form (i.e. gestational surrogacy)—cannot be discussed apart from IVF as it is integral to the process. Yet there are aspects to surrogacy that require attentive moral reasoning beyond the issues of IVF. Since 1996, more than 1 million babies have been born through assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and 33 percent of American adults report they have used fertility treatments or know someone who has. Currently, about 2 percent of all births in the United States are through ART. Many evangelicals don’t consider it a moral issue at all, but Christians should think carefully about IVF and surrogacy. While I consider this an urgent moral issue, my intention isn’t to make moral judgments but to raise questions and concerns. There’s no simple answer to when it’s morally permissible to use medical technology—from ventilators to plastic surgery—as this depends on a host of significant factors. But there are numerous concerns Christians should reckon with before moving forward in the process or encouraging others to do so. Biblical Concern: Creation, Barrenness, and Procreation We must inquire into Scripture’s overarching teaching about marriage, sex, childbearing, parenting, human life, the body, and dignity. We all agree that the Bible has something to say on these matters. The Christian’s task, then, isn’t to approach Scripture searching for explicit evidence for a certain viewpoint but to pay careful attention to God’s purposes for humanity, the institution of marriage, and the family. Many evangelicals don’t consider it a moral issue at all, but Christians should think carefully about IVF and surrogacy. The divine intention of marriage shouldn’t be reduced to only procreation, but it is one of the primary God-ordained purposes of sexual union. Multiplying is a blessing and a command (Gen. 1:28). Due to sin, however, the woman was cursed by multiplying her pain in childbearing and in bringing forth children (3:16). According to Old Testament scholar John Walton, “pain in childbearing” refers to conception anxiety: “This would include the anxiety about whether she will be able to conceive a child or not (major status issue in the biblical world); the anxiety that comes with all the physical discomfort of pregnancy; the anxiety concerning the health of the child in the womb; and the anxiety about whether she and the baby will survive the birth process.” This anxiety around conception—the struggle to carry on the lineage of God’s people—against the threat of barrenness, widowhood, or political persecution is one of the great themes of Scripture. Biblical women (e.g., Sarah, Rachel, Ruth, and Esther) are regularly confronted with the choice between preserving “the seed” (i.e., God’s people) by trusting the Lord or by trying to address this challenge through their own alternative route. In Genesis 3:15, known as the protoevangelium, the Lord promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent: a promise eventually fulfilled in Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary to defeat Satan and bring about new life. But we learn throughout the Old Testament that God cares about not only the ends but also the means by which his promises are fulfilled. Forbidden Fruit of the Womb: The Case of Sarai and Hagar Two instances of barrenness in the Old Testament directly apply to the ethics of surrogacy (Sarai and Hagar in Gen. 16:2; Rachel and Bilhah in 30:1–4). Both cases depend on the institution of slavery, but the situation of Sarai and Hagar is the most helpful to unpack. God promises Abram and Sarai an offspring, but they grow impatient. Sarai says to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her” (16:2). Just as Eve “took” and “gave” the forbidden fruit (3:6), grasping at what hadn’t been given, “Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife” (16:3). Eve took the fruit of the tree, and Sarai took the fruit of the womb. The divine promise for Abram to receive an heir stands in tension with the means they seek to procure the child, as they decide to take an alternative route, since God had “prevented [Sarai] from bearing children” (v. 2). Hagar, as a slave, was the property of her master and mistress, meaning that her son, Ishmael, would be too. In the story, we sympathize with Hagar, recognizing that Ishmael is her son and not Sarai’s. This unjust agreement necessarily alienates Hagar from her procreative abilities. Oliver O’Donovan explains, “The issue, as with slavery itself, is not primarily the issue of whether this alienation is voluntary or involuntary; it is whether it can happen at all, or be conceived to happen without a debasing and demeaning of the human person.” Surrogacy or Succession? The Case of Levirate Marriage There is also the institution of Levirate marriage in the Old Testament, where a man married his brother’s wife after she became a widow, so that “the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel” (Deut. 25:6). One might argue that the living brother serves as a type of sperm donor for the other, as the child carries the dead brother’s name. And therefore, we might find precedence for some type of reproductive intervention here. However, the child is only the dead brother’s heir in a social sense, for the sake of inheritance and succession. There is no third-party intervention within the first marriage or their sexual union, as the brother has died and the widow has been remarried. The levitical law without exception explicitly prohibited a man from uncovering “the nakedness of [his] brother’s wife” (Lev. 18:16). In summary, the biblical narrative prompts us to consider how surrogacy dehumanizes the surrogate mother and the child, as they become means of achieving the desires of the “intended parents,” and we see no commendable instances of third party intervention in the storyline of Scripture. Spiritual Concern: Disordered Desires In 1984, O’Donovan famously argued that humans are “begotten, not made.” The Nicene Creed declares that the Son is eternally begotten from the Father, not made, but creatures are all made by God. O’Donovan explained that God created humans as those who “beget” beings like themselves, while God remains the Maker. However, we’ve exchanged the human process of begetting offspring for the technological project of making. Whereas the Father eternally begets the Son from his own nature, he made us as beings outside himself. This, now, is what we do with surrogate children—creating outside instead of inside, placing ourselves in God’s position. The struggle to carry on the lineage of God’s people against the threat of barrenness, widowhood, or political persecution is one of the great themes of Scripture. The psychological and emotional pain of infertility is often (though not always) what drives people to reproductive technologies. The notion that such technologies are necessary because a couple (or an individual) wants a child for the sake of their own fulfillment, as O’Donovan says, is born out of “our cultural conception of freedom as the freedom not to suffer.” We resort to what Jacques Ellul calls “technique” to alleviate our suffering, which isn’t always bad. But the service of technique is only appropriate and helpful within the limits of God’s good created order. The goodness of procreation is subverted by the intervention of a personal third party. Matthew Arbo explains in Walking Through Infertility, “Surrogacy proceeds on a parallel assumption that the marital covenant is spiritual but not also material, that it does not make a claim upon the human body.” But of course, marriage does make this claim. In the old Book of Common Prayer liturgy for weddings, the man would even place the ring on his wife’s finger, solemnly uttering as part of his vows, “With my body I thee worship.” Procreation is the possible outcome of sex, but it isn’t the focus of sex, which is the union of a man and a woman. In other words, children may be the intention of sex but a spouse is the attention of sex. This is important. Children aren’t an act of our will. They’re an act of God’s will through the means of our sexual union. To place the child not only above but outside the union of man and woman is to disorder our desires. Couples can still exercise stewardship via natural family planning and enjoy sex apart from the desire to have children. But IVF and surrogacy uniquely make the child a project—rather than an overflow of love in a marital union—by severing procreation from sex. Relational Concern: Separated Families Surrogacy can create relational and emotional problems by starting a baby’s life separate from either his biological mother or father or from the woman who carried him in her womb. Some might raise adoption as a counterpoint. Why aren’t we similarly concerned about how adoption separates a child from her biological parents (a reality that can cause grief for adopted children)? Adoption is making the best of a difficult situation: children are already born into a circumstance where their biological parents won’t be able to care for them. Even then, adoptive parents should carefully consider what’s best for the child. Adoption is good and beautiful so long as that child needs parents, not merely because those adults want a child. Disordered desires should be considered here as well. Adoption is an imperfect yet redemptive way to give that child a more nourishing family environment. Children aren’t an act of our will. They’re an act of God’s will through the means of our sexual union. Likewise, an exceptional circumstance for surrogacy may be embryo adoption or “Snowflake Babies.” There are somewhere between 5 million and 10 million frozen embryos in the United States alone. They’ll remain frozen until their parents stop paying the storage fees and they die. We shouldn’t be naive about this. It’s impossible for us to adopt all the embryos, and the number of tiny image-bearers left to die is growing everyday, which is one formidable reason to work toward regulating IVF and surrogacy in the first place. “It’s not a problem; it’s a grave moral crisis,” says Matthew Lee Anderson. “If embryo adoption, as a practice, extends the manner of thinking that brought [embryos] there in the first place, then I think we ought to look on it with a wary eye.” But if we are able to reject the type of thinking that brought us here, embryo adoption may be an imperfect yet redemptive way to save a child’s life and give them a family. Currently, the only fully licensed adoption agency that offers embryo adoption is Nightlight Christian Adoptions. However, all other forms of surrogacy—especially when done to produce a child for same-sex couples—are intentionally bringing a child into a broken relational situation, where in many cases they’re denied the chance to be raised by their biological father and mother. And even in cases where a married husband and wife use a surrogate to carry their biological offspring, research has shown that kids can grow up with emotional problems and questions about identity. Surrogacy seems to make parenthood arbitrary, raising questions about who really made the baby: the doctors, the surrogate mother, or the intended parents? We lose sight of the meaning of parenthood, reducing the most fundamental human relationships to legal contracts. Surrogacy upends basic aspects of theological anthropology, making them subservient to modern visions of the good life. Bioethical Concern: Babies for Sale Surrogacy commodifies the surrogate mother and child. In the case of commercial surrogacy, a woman rents her womb for profit. This practice exploits the nonconsenting child—who lacks even basic protections in many jurisdictions—and the consenting mother. Payment and volition alone don’t eliminate the possibility of exploitation. For example, consider the absurdity of the slogan “Sex work is work.” Yes, it’s a form of labor. Yes, sex workers are paid. Yes, the sex is sometimes, somewhat voluntary. But it’s always demeaning and exploitative simply because there’s no dignifying way to sell sex. Sacred things can’t be sold; they can only be stolen. Likewise, with childbearing, commercial pregnancy is exploitative by nature, even if it’s voluntary and paid. No amount of payment can scratch the surface of the cost. In the case of altruistic surrogacy, where the woman donates her womb for the child’s habitation, the baby is still treated as a product based on supply and demand. Arbo points out, “The mistake here is in assuming that a pure or altruistic intention is enough to make the action morally right. . . . This is not procreation in the truest sense of the word but reproduction.” According to Carter Snead and Yuval Levin at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the industry is “fraught with peril”: Reproductive technologies are currently not regulated, there’s a lack of long-term studies on the health and safety of children and mothers, and experimental procedures quickly become routine practice. Consider also widespread sex selection and marketing of testing for trait selection, along with the general commodification of the body and its parts. A New Eugenics movement is exploding in Silicon Valley. In 2022 alone, $800 million was invested in fertility technology start-ups. A company like Orchid offers “genetic risk scores” for diabetes, epilepsy, cancers, obesity, and neurodevelopmental disorders. For example, regarding autism and intellectual disorders, they explain, “Parents gain the ability to identify embryos with known genetic forms of neurodevelopmental disorders, empowering them to make informed decisions.” For $50,000, the startup Heliospect Genomics even offers to “screen embryos for IQ.” A senior staff member, Jonathan Anomaly, openly advocates for “liberal eugenics,” arguing that “it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify rolling the genetic dice by having children without thinking about the traits they will have.” These start-ups are inching toward the long-term goal of complete reproductive control, so intended parents can select an embryo with “superior genes” and discard the rest. Path Forward Several Christian ethicists have recently drafted a statement, A Future for the Family, which argues that present technologies have “commodified the data, relationships, and bodies of children.” In response to this harsh reality, one of their principles for empowering families through technology is to “support women in their natural ability to conceive, gestate, birth, and nurture children, rather than seek to bypass or short-circuit the female body or reduce it to organs for rent.” Surrogacy upends basic aspects of theological anthropology, making them subservient to modern visions of the good life. This approach fits with the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s advocacy for restorative reproductive medicine: “Clinicians trained in this science focus investigations and treatments on correcting abnormalities rather than suppressing, destroying, or bypassing normal reproductive function.” While we can’t (and in many cases shouldn’t want to) undo modern advancements in medical technology, we can still reconsider the means and ends for which we use that technology. Are we using it to support the health and natural processes of men and women? Or are we attempting to bypass the human body to fulfill our desires? Christians need to consider this pressing question, not only for the health of our families and societies now but also for the church’s future beyond the 21st century. During an interview for Biola University, the prominent ethicist Stanley Hauerwas once grimly remarked, “I’d say, in 100 years, if Christians are people identified as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we would have been doing something right.” I hope, however, we’ll be known as those who don’t buy and sell them either.

One of the best parts of summer when I was a kid was bringing an overstuffed backpack home from the bookmobile. I’d walk through that book-lined bus like a raccoon at the county dump, grabbing whatever looked interesting in the moment. Some of those books were gems that I’ve reread as an adult. Others probably should’ve stayed on the shelf. But part of the adventure was tearing through my borrowed stack to find the treasures among the trash. Now I don’t have as much time to spend reading, so it’s more important that I separate the wheat from the tares before I invest my precious hours of summer freedom. I’m sure you’re in the same boat. That’s why the editors at The Gospel Coalition have compiled a (non-AI-generated) list of reading recommendations for you to enjoy this summer. Winfree Brisley L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Starfire, 1990; orig. 1908) In recent years, it’s gotten harder to find good novels that don’t explore dark themes, promote unbiblical agendas, or include explicit scenes. So I decided to take a break from modern fiction and go back to this children’s classic. Working through the eight-book set has been a refreshing reminder that simple themes like imagination, nature, and friendship can delight adults and children alike. Sam Allberry, One with My Lord: The Life-Changing Reality of Being in Christ (Crossway, 2024) If you want an edifying beach read that will grow your theological understanding, this is it. Allbery makes the rich doctrine of union with Christ so relatable and understandable that you’ll wonder why you don’t read more theological books. It’s a relatively quick read that could have long-lasting effects on your spiritual life. J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (Banner of Truth, 2012; orig. 1857) Ryle accomplishes what few are able to do. He offers expository engagement with Scripture in a devotional format that’s accessible and applicable. This volume was a delightful companion as I recently read through Mark. I look forward to reading his volumes on the other three Gospels as well. Collin Hansen Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (Doubleday, 2024) Not many real-life adventure stories can surpass the drama and trauma of Captain Cook’s landings in the Hawaiian Islands. Sides is up to the challenge as one of the best narrative nonfiction writers. You’ll be not only captivated by the story but also challenged by the legacy of this clash of cultures. David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Random House, 2023) I hear more often about my interview with Brooks compared to most other Gospelbound episodes, probably because he combines the profound with the practical. This book will teach you about humanity, but it’ll also help you love humans better. Who doesn’t have room to grow in that way? Alex Duke, From Eden to Egypt: A Guided Tour of Genesis (Zondervan Reflective, 2025) Moses is a master storyteller, and Genesis is his masterpiece. Duke does this inspired book justice as he zooms in on overlooked clues and zooms out to behold the progress in God’s plan of redemption. Whether you think you already know everything about Genesis or you don’t know your Joseph from your Jacob, this book will help you see the divine in the details. A lively book deserves this lively treatment. Megan Hill George Walter (ed.), The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (Penguin Classics, 2007) Since visiting the (excellent!) World War I museum in Kansas City earlier this year, I’ve been rereading the poetry that came out of that dark period. The poets’ raw wrestlings with what it means to be a dutiful soldier in a war that often makes no sense bring me to tears—but those poems also communicate deep emotions and explore the world’s complexity in ways that strikingly contrast to our highly curated, sound-bite-only, social media age. Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People (Grand Central, 2022) “Show, don’t tell” is the mantra of the good writer, and Gayle’s novel about a curmudgeonly senior citizen from Jamaica who doesn’t think he needs community is a delightful kind of show. If you’re familiar with Jonathan Haidt (Anxious Generation, 2024) or Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone, 2000), you’ve already been told that loneliness and isolation are the great problems of our age. If you’ve read the news, you know plenty of statistics about immigration. But it might take an engaging story like Gayle’s to reveal that the loneliness epidemic sometimes looks like the grumpy guy next door, that immigration looks like leaving everything familiar, and that the balm for both may simply be you showing up with a smile. (Bonus: Gayle’s The Museum of Ordinary People is also a fun read.) Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods (Harper Collins, 2004; orig. 1932) One of my methods for coping when it’s really hot is to pretend it’s winter. I tell myself that a blizzard is howling outside the door and the warmth I feel is simply the welcome blast of heat from a roaring wood stove. I’m not sweaty; I’m thawing out. Somehow, it works. Lately, I’ve been reading the Little House books aloud with my daughter, and I expect them to work a similar magic on sweltering August nights. We aren’t hot; we’ve just escaped a panther attack in the snowy woods and are now telling the tale as we warm up together around the fireplace. Betsy Childs Howard Annie Dillard, An American Childhood (Harper and Rowe, 1989) Many memoirs focus on the extraordinary, but I’m partial to an ordinary story well told. Dillard’s Pittsburgh childhood was traditional rather than tragic, yet her ability to describe the dawning consciousness of a young girl awakening to the beauty of the world is anything but ordinary. It’s refreshing to read about the happy childhood of a girl who would grow into one of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th century. Lyle W. Dorsett, Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis (Brazos, 2004) We’re living in a time of renewed interest in spiritual formation, particularly among college students. This book tracks the personal habits, authors, and practices that shaped C. S. Lewis’s spiritual life from the time of his conversion on. Dorsett draws on Lewis’s correspondence as well as oral interviews, delivering for the reader fresh Lewisian gems. Various Authors, British Library Crime Classics (Poisoned Pen Press) I love mysteries. I prefer Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to most modern sensational crime thrillers, so I was pleased to discover the British Library’s series of rereleased titles from the “Golden Age” of crime fiction. My library has an extensive collection of these volumes, and it’s likely yours does too. Jared Kennedy Lucy S. R. Austen, Elisabeth Elliot: A Life (Crossway, 2023) A little long for a beach read, but full of surprises. Elliot’s personal and theological journey is fascinating—from Brethren churches to the Episcopal church, from a fundamentalist high school in the South to Wheaton College, and eventually to reading Tillich in Ecuador’s jungles. Austen is a strong writer and a thorough historian. She introduced me to Elliot’s mature writings on Israel and nuanced musings on other hard topics, which were new to me. If you like thought-provoking biographies, you’ll enjoy this. John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ (Zondervan, 2023) An accessible book to read but much more challenging to apply. Starke argues it’s possible to be socially and culturally diminished while thriving spiritually. In fact, he shows that it’s sometimes necessary and often preferable. I found the last two chapters—on silently abiding and on times of stagnant growth—to be deeply convicting. Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age (Zondervan, 2024) Irving-Stonebraker champions both tending to neglected stories from the past and keeping or retrieving the best of its thinking and traditions. She’s an apologist for history in an era obsessed with fads and breaking news. I particularly appreciated her desire to draw from the past—her Anglican tradition’s Book of Common Prayer and practices that follow the Christian calendar—to pass on the faith to the next generation. Brett McCracken Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper’s Magazine Press, 1974) If you’re planning to relax in nature this summer—whether on a trip or just in your backyard—Dillard’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic could be a lovely literary companion. If “Christian nature writing” were a genre, this would be its Brothers Karamazov. It’s a masterpiece. Structured around the four seasons in Dillard’s corner of home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the book elegantly reflects on God’s handiwork and what it reveals about him. Jon Fosse, Morning and Evening (Dalkey Archive Essentials, 2024) The Norwegian Catholic writer Fosse is a contemporary literary giant who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023. This little novella, originally published in Norway in 2000 but only recently published in English, is a good introduction to his unique style and existential themes. “Beach read” isn’t a descriptor I’d use for this story, set on two days in the life of a man named Johannes (his day of birth and his day of death). Still, lovers of literature will appreciate Fosse’s ambitious approach to language: elliptical, meandering words that evoke Terrence Malick’s cinema and seek to capture a purity of meaning that feels both quotidian and numinous. Garrett Soucy, Between the Joints & the Marrow (Fernwood Press, 2024) I think every Christian should aspire to read at least one book of poetry each year. (Summertime is especially conducive to reading and writing poems, I find.) This new volume from rural Maine poet Soucy—who is also a pastor, folk musician, husband, and father of 11—is a great place to start. Touted as “an imaginative guided tour of the Bible,” the volume contains one poem inspired by each biblical book. Often surprising and frequently beautiful, these poetic words are potent reflections on God’s Word. Ivan Mesa Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (Tor, 2010) Some of the best-written sagas—rich in both character- and world-building—belong to the often overlooked genre that J. R. R. Tolkien popularized more than half a century ago. Sanderson stands as one of the most prolific and imaginative fantasy writers of our time—and, I’d argue, the best. The Way of Kings, the first installment in The Stormlight Archive, is a masterclass in epic storytelling: sprawling, intricate, and deeply human. If you’ve been hesitant to dive into fantasy, let this be your entry point. You can thank me later. Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire (Portfolio, 2023) This is probably the number one book I’ve commended to friends to take stock of their personal and professional lives. Martell’s approach might seem extreme (“build an empire”!), but I appreciate his dogged intentionality with life, and his concepts are easy to understand and implement. This would be especially helpful for entrepreneurs, pastors, and leaders of organizations, big or small. John Newton, Wise Counsel (Banner of Truth, 2009) What a beautiful, soul-nourishing book. Grant Gordon has collected the correspondence of John Newton—pastor, hymn writer, and slave trader turned abolitionist—written to a young minister, John Ryland Jr. But it’s more than just letters. It’s filled with pastoral wisdom through the ups and downs of life and ministry. Even if you’re not a pastor, I think you’ll be encouraged by this book. Andrew Spencer Ben Palpant, An Axe for the Frozen Sea: Conversations with Poets About What Matters Most (Rabbit Room, 2025) Truth, goodness, and beauty leave us longing for more. The transcendentals are at the heart of the 17 interviews with Christian poets in this book. There’s helpful discussion about language, poetic form, and the way faith and work intersect. As I read an interview every evening, this book encouraged me to read more poetry, to savor it, and to think about the God-given beauty in the world around me. D. M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, 2nd ed. (Banner of Truth, 2024) This book is a collection of 19 talks given by Lloyd-Jones from 1959 through 1978 at the end of the Puritan Conference at Westminster Chapel, London. Much of the conference was filled with academic content, but these essays are much lighter and more practical in tone. Reading these lectures was encouraging. They reveal that our contemporary struggles are nothing new. Lloyd-Jones had to wrestle with division, nationalism, and battles over orthodoxy just as the Puritans had before him. Louis Markos, Passing the Torch: An Apology for Classical Christian Education (IVP Academic, 2025) Summer is a good time to think about why we educate our children. Markos is always interesting, and this book is no exception. People engaged in or considering classical education will benefit most from reading this book. However, even those committed to more modern educational methods can benefit from reading because Markos builds his case for education from humanity’s nature and condition. Cassie Watson Aimee Joseph, Demystifying Decision-Making: A Practical Guide (TGC/Crossway, 2022) Maybe you don’t want to spend your leisurely beach hours thinking about the stressful decisions in your life. But perhaps you’ll think about them anyway, and this book can guide you to do it wisely. As I’m preparing to get married, I have to make constant weighty decisions—What choices should we make for the wedding? Should we rent or buy a home? What do we want our lives to look like in five or ten years? Joseph has brought greater clarity and peace to this season by pointing me to God’s sovereignty amid all my decisions and God’s desire to cultivate faith in me amid uncertainty. Andy Crouch, The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place (Baker, 2017) Also in the “preparing to get married” category is Crouch’s guide for families on how to wisely approach technology. My fiancé and I want to be intentional about the role of tech in our new shared life, even before we have children. No matter who lives under your roof, you could benefit from thinking through how this modern world is affecting your habits, affections, and character. Why not use your summer to reflect so you’re ready to make life-giving changes in the fall? John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (Crossway, 2019; orig. 1678) As the familiar rhythm of summer comes around again, it’s helpful to remember that this world isn’t going to endlessly churn through the seasons. History is heading somewhere. Christians are pilgrims on a journey to the Celestial City—to heaven where our God dwells. If we’re to live as those on a pilgrimage, aware of this life’s dangers and snares, there’s no better guide than Bunyan’s classic allegory. You’ll come away encouraged by God’s provision for us as people passing through this world. If you’re on vacation with your kids, you could pick up a children’s version of the story instead—multiple versions are available. Sarah Zylstra Alfred Lansing, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (Basic Books, 2015) I couldn’t put down this true story of explorers attempting to cross Antarctica on foot in 1915. I was surprised at what human beings will do, despaired over their plight, and was amazed at the sovereignty of God in their rescue. Especially admirable was the way Shackleton cared for his men—leaders today would do well to learn from his bold decision-making, savviness in keeping up morale, and tender care for the men in his command. Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game (Penguin, 2004; orig. 1978) A quick and clever mystery you can read to, or with, your middle schoolers. Lots of room for conversation about truth and lies, pure and crooked motivations, and the beauty of unlikely friendships. Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski, Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports (David C. Cook, 2025) Every sports parent should read this, no matter what level his or her child plays at. It’s gracious, winsome, full of research and statistics, focused on the heart, and gospel-centered. The authors give a beautiful vision of what sports are for, how our current sports culture has exploited that, and ways Christian parents can make different choices, be a witness, disciple their kids, and further the kingdom. Highly recommend.