Looking for God in Messy Places
A Book About Hope
Published April 2021
Life is messy. Find hope with Bishop Jake Owensby's Looking for God in Messy Places.
“This is beautiful and brilliant stuff, profound and plain, incredibly human, wise and charming. I trusted and enjoyed every word.”–Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author about Looking for God in Messy Places
For any who feel frustrated and world-weary, and who want more than just wishful thinking or superficial spirituality, this book is for you! In these pages, my friend Jake Owensby poignantly shows how LOVE is what can truly give us hope to carry on: real love, God's love for us, our love for each other, right here, right now in all the struggles of this messy life. And God knows, we need this book NOW!
—Bishop Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and author of Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times
Life is messy. We can get discouraged by setbacks, overwhelmed by busyness, and shaken by worry. Hope is the power that gets us out of bed in the morning and gives us the courage to face adversity. Looking for God in Messy Places by Jake Owensby is a book about how love gives us an inextinguishable hope.
This book is for anyone who has ever been frozen in place by loss or regret, anyone who has endured suffering, cruelty, or rejection. From word to word and page to page, readers will experience themselves as God’s beloved—so that they can be hopeful.
From the introduction
[This book is] For those whose struggles have been long and for those who are growing weary from heavy burdens. For those facing an unforeseen crisis or for those enduring a slow personal train wreck. For those whose throats have grown raw from crying for justice and for those whose wounds have gone unhealed. This is a book about hope, and I have written it especially for those who refuse to yield to discouragement and despair.
Topics include:
- The power of love to give us hope
- The ways that God shows up in our daily lives
- Recognizing God’s call in our lives
- Becoming your true self
- Having a sense of belonging
- Forming a friendship with Christ
- Contemplative faith
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About the Author
Jake Owensby
Jake Owensby is a writer and speaker whose work focuses on the spirituality of everyday life. He is the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Western Louisiana and author of five books including Looking for God in Messy Places, A Resurrection Shaped Life, and Your Untold Story.
Before entering ordained ministry, he earned the PhD in philosophy from Emory University and served as a professor at Jacksonville University. He has always been interested in how people find meaning and purpose in their ordinary lives. And he sees himself as a kind of midwife, helping his readers and those who participate in his workshops give birth to their own sense of what makes life worth living.
He has three adult children and lives in Alexandria, Louisiana, with his wife, Joy, and rescue pup, Gracie.
He blogs about looking for God in messy places at JakeOwensby.com.