cover image What If I’m Wrong?: Navigating Through the Waves of Fear and Failure

What If I’m Wrong?: Navigating Through the Waves of Fear and Failure

Heather Thompson Day. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-4003-4157-3

Day (It’s Not Your Turn) offers an intimate meditation on chasing one’s dreams in the face of disappointment. The account centers around the crisis of faith Day experienced at age 25 when her minister father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; watching his decline caused her to rethink her belief that God blesses good people and curses the bad (her father, who’d been driven by a lifelong passion for spreading God’s word, “had been shorted on his transaction,” she writes). Considering what it means to pursue one’s passion with the aid of faith, she contemplates risk (the idea “that our passions can be pursued from a safe distance” is a “common misconception”); suffering (“The hand of God over your life is not always visible by financial measure or popularity”); and how challenges can spur spiritual growth (when “you think God has stepped back from you, eventually, you step forward toward him”). Transparent about her own spiritual doubts and flaws, Day provides a perceptive commentary on what it means to maintain and strengthen one’s faith in moments of struggle. Christians unsure of their spiritual direction will find solace here. (Apr.)