Dear friends,

Has a small space ever felt surprisingly spacious to you?

This week, I spent three days in a tiny, sound-proof recording booth in Chicago. That little room had just enough space for a chair, microphone, music stand, and a shelf with bottles of water. Once I squeezed in and closed the door, I couldn’t see or hear anything outside the “studio brick.”

And yet, inside that space, thousands of years of history and so many inspiring people and places in our world came to voice. More personally, decades of my life and some of my most cherished memories came alive afresh. I was recording the audiobook for Reviving the Golden Rule.

Reviving the Golden Rule book tells the story of how “Love your neighbor as yourself” emerged in an unlikely community amidst violent empires. It then traces how neighbor love has brought healing across the human adventure.

This love has been embodied in some of our most beloved ancestors like Ruth and Boaz in ancient Israel, Julian of Norwich in medieval England, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany... Read More

Dear friends,

This is a really special moment in my journey. I’m so grateful to share it with you.

Today I unboxed the first physical copies of my next book Reviving the Golden Rule: How the Ancient Ethic of Neighbor Love Can Heal the World. After years of working on this project, it felt surreal to hold it in my hands. (It will officially release on October 2 and is available for pre-order now.) My wife Lily kindly captured this milestone in this 2-minute video.

The opening section is called “Gratitude” and names many of you who have helped make this book possible, including my editors Colton Bernasol and Zach Gordon at IVP Academic. I want to give special thanks to Lily, my board, Graham Smith (happy early birthday!), and Beth and Hythem Shadid for their incredible encouragement in this long journey.

I love several things about this book, and I hope you’ll also find these aspects energizing.

Stories

Reviving the Golden Rule is grounded in real-world stories, both from my life and people around the world... Read More

Dear friends,

Shane Claiborne has inspired my journey with Jesus for years. I’ll never forget reading his book Jesus for President in Ethiopia back in 2008. That book introduced me to someone who took Jesus’ words more seriously than I was familiar with. Shane didn’t simply “believe in” Jesus; he sought to live his way in our world. I began asking, “What if Jesus really meant what he said?”

Shane recently invited me onto his podcast Red Letter Christians to talk about my book Blessed Are the Others. Our conversation is a quick 30 minutes. But we cover a lot of good ground: the heart of Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes, the fears we face in following him, the striking contrast between how Jesus understood “blessing” and how many of us do today. We wrapped up by talking about spiritual inspirations and practices that sustain us in following Jesus now.

I loved what Shane said early into our conversation: “Jesus is the best corrective to the things that have gone wrong in parts of Christianity… The idols and aspirations of America are the Beatitudes on their head.”.. Read More

Dear friends,

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been afraid of heights. Terrified is probably the more accurate word.

I’ve always loved being in water and swimming. Pools, rivers, lakes, oceans — these are my happy places. But I was the kid who’d climb up the diving board and then freeze at the top. The short fall between the board and the water scared me to death.

My fear of heights has traveled with me on land across the decades. On the first anniversary of my dad’s death in April, Lily and I went for a long hike at Starved Rock State Park. We walked through the lush forest with birdsong ringing in every direction. At last, we arrived at the top of Wildcat Canyon. A solid deck with a sturdy railing invited us to look out over the edge into this wondrous hole in the earth. But simply inching up to the railing and taking a picture to view at a safe distance made my body tense up and tremble... Read More

Dear friends,

Today is my 42nd birthday. This essay is longer and more personal than usual. Writing it has been a gift for me. I hope it also arrives as a gift for you.

I invite you to read it straight through or spend time in sections that seem most relevant to you. Thank you for sharing the journey of life.

Yours with gratitude,

Andrew

Synchronicity:

Divine Presence in Human Experience

Last year, my birthday was unlike any other in my life. It was my first since my dad died.

Today, a year later, his death still “hurts so good,” as dad would playfully say in painful situations. I think of him daily and am still surprised by the unpredictable waves of grief that wash over me.

Since his death, my attention has been expanding to God’s mysterious presence in my experience, especially in everyday life and deep grief. Jesus promised, “I am with you always.” Paul wrote, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”.. Read More