Beautiful People Don't Just Happen

April 11, 2022
“Many of the world’s greatest souls become their best selves not in spite of but because of their distress,” contends pastor Sauls (A Gentle Answer) in this insightful manual. The author helps Christians assuage self-doubt and negative thoughts with a blend of biblical analysis and personal anecdotes, which touch on Sauls’s struggles with depression, anxiety, and the death of his mother. The author distinguishes guilt (“I said something mean”) from toxic shame (“I am mean”), urging readers to reject the latter and find grace and forgiveness in God for the former. To illustrate the transformative power of adversity, Sauls points to the oppression endured by Isaiah after the death of King Uzziah and tells of how Job lost 10 children in a day. The author encourages readers to practice “abiding” by nurturing one’s relationship with Jesus in good times so that it’s fortified when bad times arrive. Sauls’s thoughtful advice, grounded in keen scriptural interpretations, resists easy platitudes, and readers will appreciate such affirmations as, “Your own regret, hurt, and fear—your not-enough-ness—is not a barrier to God’s healing mercy, but the very occasion for it.” This is a soothing guide for weary souls.