The best books I read this year. As every year, please keep in mind that not all of these were published in 2021—they were just the best books I read in 2021. And like last year, I am not including re-reads. In ascending order . . . Honorable Mentions: Truth on Fire by Adam Ramsey, Servants for His Glory by Miguel Nuñez, Justification Vindicated by Robert Traill, and Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States by Colin Quinn. 10. Belichick and Brady: Two Men, the Patriots, and How They Revolutionized Football by Michael Holley Was it Brady? Was it Belichick? [little girl meme:] Why not ..read more

If you’ve ever laid awake at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering if you could ever feel loved, I wrote this brand new book for you. Here are 20 choice lines from Love Me Anyway: How God’s Perfect Love Fills Our Deepest Longing . . . 1. “When you do relationships through the love of God, you learn over and over again that love has a lot less to do with feelings and a lot more to do with forgiveness.” (p.17) 2. “Love is patient, because love gives people space to be themselves. If you love someone, you give them room to breathe.” (p.24) 3. “Think of the child who in a fit of frustrated rage ..read more

I’m really excited to share that my new book Love Me Anyway: How God’s Perfect Love Fills Our Deepest Longing officially releases today! There may be no more powerful desire in the human heart than to be loved. And not just loved, but loved anyway. In spite of what we’ve done or left undone, in spite of the ways we’ve failed or floundered, we long for an unconditional, lavish love that we know deep down we don’t deserve. I put my heart and soul into this book, exploring the incredible news that this kind of love actually exists, and it is an experience that is ours for the having. Chapter by c ..read more

I am so stunningly not like Jesus. I feel this reality most deeply whenever I interact with another person, which of course is when my being like Jesus matters most! It usually happens like this: I come home from work, which aside from teaching a couple of classes and conducting a few casual conversations, I have largely spent in my own mental world. I spend a lot of time by myself. And it’s draining. So when I get home, I want to be by myself. But home is where the people live who matter the most to me. And they get my leftover interest, my leftover energy, my leftover love. Tired and self-pi ..read more

Recently I was guest preaching at a church, and a woman came up to me after the sermon and said to me, “You preach with such kindness.” I have not been able to shake that remark ever since (and not just because it was a compliment!). It seemed significant to me for a couple of reasons. First, the text I was preaching from was Genesis 18:16-33, where Abraham is interceding for Sodom, and “kindness” is not exactly the first impression one would take away from the passage. Additionally, this church conducted two services, and I was concerned after I preached the first that I had not made a signif ..read more

Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!” And the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow.” — Jonah 4:9-10 Jonah didn’t do anything to get that plant; it was freely given to him. And he was acting like he deserved it, like he earned it somehow. Jonah is acting very self-righteously. He’s more concerned about his own comfort, which he thinks he himself deserves, than he is the idea of lost people going to hell, which he thinks he himself doesn’t. Imagine for a mo ..read more

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself . . . strengthen [you].” — 1 Peter 5:10 To suffer, with Christ, is a vastly superior life to never suffering without him. And if he has saved you through his death, manifesting all his divine power in his own human weakness unto death, do you not think he can be your power in your suffering? He will be your strength in the eternal life he gives you. Eternal life means just that—“eternal.” This means however much you suffer, even if it be all of your life, and even ..read more

I turn 46 this year, loosely ensconced in my middle age years, on the downhill slope to 50. I’ve thought a lot about this season of life, primarily from the standpoint of committing to passing the baton and investing in the Church’s younger generations. But I’ve also thought a lot about the peculiarities of this season of life, how for many it holds such uneasiness and insecurity. I’ve thought about the so-called “midlife crisis.” I used to think it was a weird thing that (mostly) men in their middle ages feel suddenly drawn to sports cars and career reinventions and (worst of all) trading in ..read more

This year will mark ten years since the publication of my second book, Gospel Wakefulness, which in many respects serves as a the lodestar of all my writing. It’s not my personal favorite of all my books, and it’s probably not my best written book, but everything else I’ve written has served mainly to contextualize and apply the primary principle in that book. Because of that, when people ask me “If I read just one of your books, which should it be?,” I usually point them to Gospel Wakefulness. What is it about? It’s essentially about personal revival. It’s about the kind of quantum leap in sa ..read more

On Maundy Thursday 500 years ago (1521), the Pope issued a Papal Bull listing Martin Luther and his followers for the first time as heretics. They had already been excommunicated, but now they were singled out as beyond redemption even in the afterlife. No indulgence could spring them. No, in fact, their only hope for escape from torment was a word from the Pope himself. Fairly convenient, wouldn’t you say? In his inimitable way, Luther scoffed, reprinted the bull with his own retorts written in the margins, and charged the Pope with being a drunk. As one does. At the heart of the theological ..read more