A brave new book – Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times by Adam Hamilton

My Review:

Packed with statistics, social studies, and Biblical truth, Adam Hamilton confronts fear and its causes in American during these postmodern times.

He discusses politics, parenting, church efforts and failures…also loneliness, significance, FOMO, finances, and illness.

There’s not really any new information in the book, but it is very attractively packaged into 5 parts, each with 4 chapters. Footnotes provide extra information about sources of info. The appendix includes 31 Days of Scripture Reading on Fear.

Hamilton is unafraid to mention what many of us are feeling in this scary social media-induced dystopia.

We are feeding our fears instead of facing them.

I have liked Hamilton’s other books, and this book is no different. Well-written, including relevant personal stories, facts and statistics for the intellectual in me…It shows fear as the evil it is and how we can still be courageous in spite of fear.

About the Book:

One of the most repeated instructions in the Bible is “Don’t be afraid.” This phrase, in one form or another, appears 140 times in Scripture. It reminds us that ordinary women and men from ancient times struggled with fear. But Scripture also shows us that faith—and paradoxically, a healthy “fear of the Lord”—can be pivotal to overcoming fear and finding peace in uncertain times.

We can hardly overstate the extent to which fear permeates our lives. Most of us have known times when it has robbed us of the life we wanted. Our fears, in the form of insecurity, often wreak havoc on our lives and personal relationships. At times, fear has led us to make bad decisions. At others, it has kept us from taking risks or doing things that would have brought great meaning, fulfillment, and joy to our lives.

But it does not have to control us, says Adam Hamilton in UNAFRAID: LIVING WITH COURAGE AND HOPE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES (Convergent; hardcover; 3/13/18; $24.00).

Hamilton, who was recently interviewed by David Brooks at the Aspen Ideas Festival, has seen the climate of fear up close as the senior pastor of a diverse and dynamic 20,000-member congregation planted squarely in Middle America, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. He has spent the last thirty years shepherding congregants, and in the process, becoming deeply involved with their struggles with fear. He’s walked them through economic downturns, three wars, terrorist attacks, countless personal tragedies, and, most recently, the current political divide, a topic he spoke about earlier this year with Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered.

In doing research for a sermon series, Hamilton conducted a survey of his congregation to gain deeper insight into this emotion. Of the 2,400 people who participated, eighty percent reported living with moderate or significant levels of fear. He then analyzed the latest national polls to see what people across the country rank as their top fears, and delved deeper into that research.

UNAFRAID combines thorough research, powerful stories from people Hamilton has pastored, and timeless wisdom from the Scriptures. He helps readers understand some of the most common fears we wrestle with, differentiate between those things we should fear and false or exaggerated fears, and find ways to cope with our fears that lead us to live with hope. The book also helps readers identify and counter their fears in key areas of threat: crime, race, terrorism, politics, failure, disappointing others, insignificance, loneliness, change, and finances, and the perennial fears of growing old and death.

To these near-universal fears, Hamilton brings insights in critical areas, including:

• why you will never fully eliminate fear from your life (and why that’s a good thing)
• the search for meaning as a fundamental need
• how people from time immemorial have addressed their fears
• spiritual practices that can bring real peace
• cognitive restructuring to identify faulty assumptions and replace them with positive thinking
• how appropriate fear plays an important role in our lives

Hamilton draws upon insights from psychology, sociology, and the Scriptures to offer inspiration and help for addressing the most common sources of fear, worry, and anxiety and guides the reader in how to live “unafraid, with courage and hope.”

About the Author:

Adam J. Hamilton, a leading voice for reconciliation and church renewal in mainstream Christianity, is the senior pastor of the 20,000-member Church of the Resurrection, Kansas City, the largest and most influential United Methodist congregation in the United States. He is the author of twenty-five books; his most recent trade release is Making Sense of the Bible.

Renowned picture book author/illustrator Hudson Talbott has created a captivating, full-color, online story to introduce America’s children to Thomas Cole, founder of the nation’s first major art movement, the Hudson River School of art.

It’s available free on the website of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (www.thomascole.org), in honor of the 200^th anniversary of Cole’s arrival in America.

The 16-page story – “Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art” – is an abbreviated version of a picture book by the same name to be published in September by Penguin Random House. The story shows how, as an immigrant from England, Cole fell in love with the American wilderness, especially the Hudson River Valley and the Catskills. Through his paintings and writings, he made an impassioned plea to value and preserve America’s natural landscapes – a message that profoundly influenced the nation and continues to resonate today.

Hudson Talbott is a Trustee of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY, and lives in the Hudson Valley. He has written and/or illustrated more than 25 books, including the Newbury Honor Book Show Way (by Jacqueline Woodson), ALA Notable Book Leonardo’s Horse (by Jean Fritz) and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, which was adapted into an animated film by Steven Spielberg.

The idea for the full 32-page picture book Picturing America arose when Elizabeth Jacks, mother of two and Executive Director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, was planning a family trip to another historic site. Unable to find a child-friendly introduction to the place they would visit, she took stock of the offerings at the Thomas Cole Site and turned to Hudson Talbott, who created Picturing America and this shortened online story.

The Cole Site is located in the Hudson River Skywalk Region, which consists of two landmark historic sites – the Cole Site and Olana –  located two miles apart and linked by the Hudson River Skywalk pedestrian walkway on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. The region includes the City of Hudson and Village of Catskill. Olana is the masterpiece of Cole’s student and legendary artist Frederic Church. Its Persian-inspired house and 250-acre landscape, both designed by Church, offer stunning views of the Hudson River Valley and Catskills, complementing the magnificent views from the Skywalk. More information is available at www.thomascole.org and www.olana.org.

Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move by Bekah DiFelice is a great book about nomadic life.

My Review

I can relate to Bekah DiFelice in her book Almost Home. Humorous anecdotes about military life and discovering the meaning of “home.”

As a military wife, I’ve moved five times.

Five times packing up memories, clothes, toys, books, kitchen items. Clearing out pantries and freezers. Having yard sales and donating items we can’t take with us.

It’s stressful living a nomadic life. It’s sometimes depressing feeling homeless.

We arrive at a new location and wonder, “What’s the point of even hanging pictures on the walls or buying curtains for this rental house when we’re leaving soon?”

We crave new friendships only to say goodbye.

As a military family, we learn to cling to each other through deployments and PCSes and other stressors than civilians don’t understand. Movies and books can only give a glimpse. This is our life.

We can find home anywhere. It isn’t necessarily our home of record or where our parents and siblings live. It isn’t where we went to high school.

I feel most at home walking along the cold beaches of Normandy, France, sitting in a café in Paris, eating moules frites in Bruges, gazing at the sunset in Greece.

My four children will most likely grow up scattered to the winds and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Then I can travel and visit and find new ideas for home.

Home is truly where the heart is.

About the Book

On the move . . . again? Wondering when you will “arrive”?

Sometimes God leads people out of familiar territory so he can tell them who they are. That moment you depart, you experience reinvention, renewal, and freedom. You get a redo on the adjectives associated with your name.

Almost There is for those on the move and those who feel restless right where they are. It’s for those who struggle with not belonging, with feeling unsettled, with believing that home is out of their reach, at least for the moment. And Almost There is for those who find themselves in a transient lifestyle they didn’t expect―say, moving across the country for a new job or the military or an opportunity to begin again.

With imaginative storytelling and witty, relatable prose, Bekah DiFelice offers wisdom for those struggling to belong in a world where home is constantly shifting. When our hope of home is rooted in an unchangeable God, we are not uprooted, lost, or made homeless by change. We become found ones on the move.

About the Author

Bekah DiFelice loves strong coffee, her home state of Colorado, and turning strangers into friends. She’s a wife, mom, and writer. You can find her at BekahDiFelice.com, where she shares her story of discovering pieces of home in the most unlikely places.

Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.