Spiritual Memoir

Too many Christians, especially those in ministry, believe they are untouchable - that they're too faithful to fall or too spiritual to give in to temptation. They deny any sort of weakness, fail to draw proper boundaries, and end up doing the very things they swore they'd never do. Pastor and author Brittany Rust was one such person - until she found herself in the middle of moral failure and a church-wide scandal. Bewildered, humiliated, and ashamed, she thought she was beyond redemption. But God's grace met her on the ground, and here she shares what she's learned through her painful journey.

In this engaging memoir, Andrea speaks to all of us who wrestle with faith, doubt, and spiritual identity. Join Andrea as she navigates the Thames River, the Oxford Atheist Society, romance in ancient pubs - and a new perspective on who God is. As Andrea learned, sometimes it takes letting go of old ideas to discover lasting truth.

Once a trained athlete in peak condition, Joanne Moody suffered a postpregnancy injury that sidelined her for the next 14 years. Not one to give up easily, Moody fought to find an answer to her pain year after year. Countless doctors attempted to treat her until, finally, one recommended a surgeon in France. Joanne and her sisters made the trek only to stare death in the face again. At the moment of greatest pain, God reached down and gave her a promise.

Moses never wanted to be a leader. Jonah ran away from his mission's call. And when Marcia Moston's husband came home with a call to foreign missions, she was sure God had the wrong number. His call conflicted with her own dreams, demanded credentials she didn't have, and required courage she couldn't seem to find. She promised to follow where God led, but she never thought the road would lead to a Mayan village on a Guatemalan mountainside.

Becca Stevens calls herself a "snake oil salesman" - in a positive sense. The social enterprise she founded, Thistle Farms, provides purpose and employment to abused women, providing them with the economic well-being to begin new lives. The natural body-care products that Thistle Farms manufactures - balms, soaps, and lotions, whose ingredients include essential oils - bring healing comfort to the company's customers, too.

Many of us would say it takes guts and a little bit of crazy to step toe-to-toe with a powerful, 1700-pound bull. For hall-of-fame bullfighter, Jeremy Sparks, it took faith. Sparks' remarkable and illustrious journey began at a young age when he received a God-given calling to become a professional bullfighter.

When the oldest of Kate Braestrup's four children was 10 years old, her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident. Stunned and grieving, she decided to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister. She eventually began working with the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts the state's search-and-rescue operations when people go missing in the wilderness.

My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker is based on Melissa Burch's experiences as a war journalist for BBC, CBS, and other networks. Her team was one of the first documentary crews allowed in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and she was featured in a New York Times story about her time in Afghanistan. She was just in her 20s when she traveled with the moujahedeen, filmed an attack on a Soviet convoy, slept with an Afghan commander, and climbed 14,000-foot mountains in the Hindu Kush.

This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life, but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life - from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements - enlarged how she defined and lived her faith.

In her best-selling children's book Take Heart, My Child, Ainsley Earhardt drew on her childhood and the inspirational notes her father wrote her before school each morning. In this moving memoir, she reminisces about growing up with a father who loved his children unconditionally - a cherished model of parenthood she has adopted with her own daughter - how her Christian faith has shaped her life, and the dynamic journalism career that has made her a trusted household name.

When a 200-pound glass partition fell on Donna Fado Ivery's head resulting in brain injury, disability, and chronic pain, she could no longer count on walking, speaking, or thinking. How would she care for her infant, her preschooler, her husband, and herself? How would she continue to serve as pastor? With humor and humility, this inspirational memoir speaks to Donna’s struggle through medical, social, and church prejudice with the abiding support of family and the Holy Spirit.

David Rose knows suffering. In his memoir, Nothing is Wasted, he shares the life events that he has walked through—experiences of abuse and bullying and a terrible accident that led to years of medical treatment, ultimately altering the trajectory of his life forever. While his story may seem shrouded in darkness, a brighter light was present throughout his life. In every moment, God was with him, and he was unfolding a glorious plan in Rose’s life. Through it all, Rose learned that God can use the lowest times in your life and turn the pain into something beautiful.

In Ley Lines of Love, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle shares wisdom gained from a lifetime of spiritual seeking and devoted practice. A dedicated practitioner of Buddhism, she shares many remarkable stories about her inner journey, including the joys of learning from enlightened teachers. She also recounts how her years of involvement with a devotional tradition from India ended in an archetypal story of disillusionment.

Discover spiritual truths from the smash Broadway hit "Hamilton" that will transform your life. "Hamilton" - the hip-hop musical about a forgotten founding father - is the most compelling musical of our time. God and Hamilton impressively weaves together insights from the musical itself, the lives of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, and the story of Scripture into a tapestry that challenges people of faith to reexamine their lives.

Even when you follow all the rules, life can go very wrong.... Dennis Mansfield and his wife, Susan, planned for and expected every parent's dream, but instead lived every parent's nightmare. This haunting memoir tells the story of a father who diligently followed all the parenting rules that he learned from conservative Christian "experts" - yet life with his son Nate went terribly wrong when the young man died at 27 of drug-related causes.

In desperate need to rid herself of a life lived in bondage to a negative ego, Ameille Zay Marcotte found yoga, or, rather, yoga discovered Marcotte. Through her practice, in conjunction with sobriety, she found the ability to let go and opened her mind to a world of infinity. Marcotte’s deeply personal account demonstrates how the application of spiritual principles unfolded in her life and illustrates the unimaginable healing that occurred through faith and forgiveness.

Enlightening, revelatory, and bold, Beyond Jesus reveals how our political and religious institutions are an outward manifestation of the inner beliefs we hold about who we are, and that beneath the layers of dogma about Jesus lies a key to our spiritual evolution and the astonishing possibility it holds for the future.

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson chronicles his year of living like Jesus and obeying his teachings. Dobson's transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering. As Dobson discovers, living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

Defeated in her marriage and disheartened with the church, Angela Sue Garvey recalls growing up in the evangelical church during the purity culture of the '90s. Once married, she found herself sitting across from an evangelical pastor who advised her to be quiet and submissive to a husband who routinely destroyed her. She recounts her spiral into a decade-long spiritual crisis and the growing bitterness and cynicism she felt as she questioned her place in the church and with God.

Lance’s dream had finally come true. He was in a rock band that took music seriously. But he never expected that meeting a toe-sock-wearing Texan would change the course of his life for eternity. Go on an exciting, personal journey with Lance Mosher, where he questions everything he thought he knew about Christianity, faith, and salvation - the very essence of who he thought he was.