Rest

Dear friends,

I hope this finds you well. I have two very joyful announcements to share.

First, I’ve just finished my next book. I look forward to sharing more about it with you over the summer. We’re hoping it will be published in October. I had a wild experience writing this book. I cried; I laughed; I danced in my chair; mainly, I felt a deep sense of peace and grounded, unrushed direction. The book is about the birth of God.

Second, I’m doing something new, for me at least. Starting last night, I’m taking a sabbatical for the next three months.

The last decade of my life has been good but intense. It’s included years of full-time teaching, launching the Neighbor-Love Movement, advocating for peace amidst Ethiopia’s civil war, writing five books, processing my dad’s death, launching Prophetic, and a whole lot else. This work has come at the cost of extended character assassination, death threats, and very personal attacks.

I feel more alive than ever today. But I also feel totally exhausted at the same time. Thankfully, my board and my friends have encouraged me to enter into a time of sabbath rest.

I’m excited for this experiment and what it will enliven in me. Over the next 90 days, I’m committed to do things that I haven’t done since the Internet became a thing:

• not visit a social media platform; I’ve deleted Facebook, X, Insta, TikTok, etc from my phone.
• not “google” anything; I’ve deleted all web browsers from my phone.
• not check the news; I’ve deleted all news apps from my phone.
• not write on my phone but return to slower, messier handwritten journals.
• pause email and scale back responses – if you write me and I don’t respond, no disrespect intended!
• change my phone number and significantly limit texting – if you text me and I don’t respond, again, no disrespect intended!

My intention with these “fasts” is to create space for sleep, rest, and play. I want to completely calm my “productive muscles” and simply be. I hope to spend significant time swimming in the ocean, reading books, walking in silence, listening, and protecting space to do nothing.

In all of this, I intend to practice God’s presence and see what God has for me. I sense that this sabbatical season is meant to be paradoxical. On the one hand, I see it as a return to childhood and being reborn. On the other hand, I see it as an entry into the second half of my life and becoming an elder. I’m curious and hopeful.

Over the next several months, I would be so grateful for your kind prayers and good vibrations. Please pray for long sleep, deep rest, joyful play, and divine surprises 🙂 Here goes!

If you’re a personal friend with my phone number, I humbly ask for your patient understanding. Starting tomorrow morning (April 3), I’m temporarily switching SIM cards. Thereafter, I will not be responding to voice or text messages until at least mid-July. Thank you for your support in this season of intentional solitude. It is NOT meant to reject or neglect our friendship. Please know that I look forward to reconnecting on the other side. 

That said, your friendship is sacred to me. If an emergency happens between now and mid-July and you feel like I really need to know about it, please reach out to my sister Abby at: shadowlands4now [at] gmail [dot] com. Abby has been a beloved and wise guide since the beginning of my life 🙂 I’ve asked her to receive emergency messages and discern whether to share them with me or not. You can also text her at: six three zero eight five four seven four zero one.

If, for some wild reason, you don’t want a sabbatical from me, I warmly invite you to spend time with…

My books:

• Reviving the Golden Rule: How the Ancient Ethic of Neighbor Love Can Heal the World (2025).
  • Audiobook here – narrated by me 🙂
• Blessed Are the Others: Jesus’ Way in a Violent World (2024).
• Flourishing on the Edge of Faith: Seven Practices for a New We (2022).
  • Audiobook here – narrated by me 🙂
• Bonhoeffer’s New Beginning: Ethics after Devastation (2018)

My recent lectures, sermons, podcasts:  

• “The Greatest Enemy: Christ’s Invitation Now” (starting at minute 34) – San Diego, March 2026.
• “The Beatitudinal Way of Jesus” – San Diego, March 2026.
• “Bonhoeffer, Baldwin, and Minneapolis” – San Diego, March 2026.
• On Shame, Rage, Grief, and Peacemaking with Suzanne Ross – March 2026.
• Bonhoeffer Course Lecture 1: “Bonhoeffer’s Beautiful Life and Fascist World – and Worlds” – January 2026.
• Bonhoeffer Course Lecture 2: “Bonhoeffer’s Universal Christ and Anti-Fascist Ethics” – January 2026.
• Bonhoeffer Course Lecture 3: “Jesus, Maga, and Resistance” – February 2026.
• Reflections on My Arrest in Minneapolis – January 2026.
• “Gethsemane: Our Global Garden of Grief” – February 2026.
• “The Trees Are Our Teachers: Anti-Fascist Devotion.”

My recent essays: 

• “Reframe with Andrew DeCort” – Substack essays on the headlines of the Beatitudes.
• My Facebook – I’ve been writing a lot on my Facebook platform; it is public and free. Recent topics include white male rage, Philip Yancey, and hope.
• “Hegseth’s Death Cult” – Political Theology Network.
• “The Nationwide Day of Truth & Freedom,” Red Letter Christians, January 22, 2026.
• “The Grief Beneath Our Cynicism,” BitterSweet Monthly. 
• “Who Counts? The Revolutionary Ethics of God,” RAPT Interviews, December 2025. 
• “The Gospel and the Other: Preaching in an Age of Us vs. Them,” The Pastor’s Workshop, December 2, 2025.
• “The Fruit of Love,” a nine-part essay series with Cultivare, February-October 2025.

Dear friends, I will cherish you during these next few months of solitude, silence, rest, and renewal. Thank you again for your friendship, encouragement, and prayer. I look forward to reconnecting on the other side of sabbatical. I’m curious what will unfold in-between.

Love always,

Andrew