Paul David Tripp

First sentence: Genesis begins with the most brilliant, mind-bending, and heart-engaging introduction to a book ever written.

Usually devotionals are not my thing. Usually. There are always a few exceptions and Paul David Tripp's newest book is such an exception. This devotional walks you--the reader--through the Bible reading it cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation. It is a Bible reading plan and a devotional.

The devotional entries spring [mostly] naturally from that day's reading. All show more tend to pointing readers back to gospel truths. Some tell more personal stories that shine a little more light in how one can live out Scripture. If it was just personal stories and the focus was only on his personal life, his ups and downs, his family, lessons he'd learned, then, I probably would not be gushing about this one.

I really love the gospel focus. So many essential, foundational gospel truths are shared day after day after day after day. I do believe that we as believers do need to hear the gospel often, even every day often.

There were so many sentences/paragraphs that I underlined/highlighted. This one isn't only occasionally good, it is frequently good. I could see myself sharing what I've read with others.

How much did I love this one? After reading it from the library, I bought it for myself for Christmas. show less

Years ago, my wife’s shoe fell apart after a day at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. The sole came off with no warning, clinging to the heel while the rest flopped in our hands. We got a good laugh out of it, and this is not an example of suffering. Rather, it's a good analogy of what suffering does: the shoe sustained enough pressure that its sole detached. If you’re a Christian whose soul has detached under pressure, pastor and author Paul David Tripp intends to help you put your shoe back show more together.

“Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense” is thoroughly autobiographical, grounded on Tripp’s own brush with death in the form of acute kidney failure. After enduring pain so intense that he wanted to die, medical trauma over multiple surgeries, and now-lifelong limitations, he sees suffering from the inside. First and foremost, in his experience, life-altering pain and loss is an identity crisis: “Suffering causes us to scan our lives and face the fact that we control very little. So we mourn not only our suffering but also what it has forced us to admit about ourselves.”

The identity Tripp wants to help you recover is that of a Christian who hasn’t given up on God. He offers multiple case studies of people whose belief in God’s goodness cratered along with their lives. It’s this loss of spiritual identity that Tripp wants to help you through. This is not a clinic of pain management techniques, a manual of therapeutic methodology, or even a theodical attempt to justify belief in God’s goodness, power, or existence in such a world (I noticed just one comment about God’s existence in the entire book). Tripp assumes you believe God exists; you’re just no longer sure he cares.

Tripp vectors in on your identity crisis through two opening chapters where he lays bare his own as a Type A personality reduced to a shell: “Suffering doesn’t make us weak; it simply exposes the weaknesses that have been there all along. It exposes the delusion of our sovereignty and independent capability. It’s painful to be confronted with who we really are and how needy and dependent we are.” He learned that the contours of suffering are “more powerfully shaped by what’s in your heart than by what’s in your body or in the world around you…The way I experienced all those harsh realities was shaped by the thoughts, desires, dreams, expectations, cravings, fears, and assumptions of my heart.”

Tripp aims to fortify your heart against a loss of Christian identity, starting with six chapters that warn of the traps — awareness, fear, envy, doubt, denial, and discouragement — that lurk within suffering. The meta-trap that includes all of these is pain’s tendency to usurp self-understanding: “The identity you assign to yourself determines how you assess your expectations, how you measure your potential, and how you act, react, and respond to your everyday situations and relationships. This is why it is so important to fight the temptation to let what you suffer define who you are.”

Once you let loss displace you from your own life, the game is over. Hope is what keeps us going when going hurts, and hope is intimately bound up in what we think about ourselves: “If tragedy robs you of your true identity and redefines who you are, then it also dents, damages, or destroys your hope. When travail becomes your identity, it robs you of the one thing that all human beings need to have, what they were designed to be, and to do what they were called to do: expectancy. Loss of hope renders you weak and timid, lacking in motivation and courage.”

For a Christian, of course, identity is more than just knowing yourself — it’s knowing yourself as a person who is hidden with Christ in God. Having cautioned you about suffering’s traps, Tripp turns to six chapters offering the comforts of God: his grace, presence, sovereignty, purpose, people, and rest. God is not flippant about our suffering, nor is it without a good purpose. Jesus himself cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Romans 8:28 is always true, though perhaps not in the way we would prefer. We want happy endings, when God’s purpose might be a godly ending. Aligning our wills to his, learning anew what faith is all about, can help the Christian recover hope.

Faith and hope are well and good, but what of love? The pain within a Christian’s pain is the fear that God no longer loves him, and that’s all any of us want: “There is a cry deep in the heart of every human being. It is the cry to be loved. What do we all long for but to be loved, not just on our good days, not just when we are strong, not just when it is attractive to do so, and not just in those moments when we feel we deserve it. We all want to be loved when we’re weak, broken, confused, unattractive, and unable to love fully in return. We all want someone who loves us to hold us tight and never let us go.”

Dear Christian, Tripp would say, you have someone who loves you, and you are someone who is loved. Perhaps you’ve forgotten who he is and who you are, but he hasn’t. You may feel trapped in an endless free-fall or a tiny box, but there are arms to catch you and hands to open the lid. Remembering this is the first step out of the darkness that comes when our limitations and mortality become all too real. “Everything in life ends or dies in some way,” Tripp writes. “Nothing in this world remains the same forever. Many of the things we bank on end up failing us in the end. But God never will.” The path through suffering is still and always faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. show less

I wanted to read this book primarily because I adore Tripp's devotional book "New Morning Mercies." Granted, I've only read part of that book, one that collates many of Tripp’s tweets over the years and fleshing them out in the devo setting, but his way with words and sheer relatability, even in just what I *have* read, truly astounds me. He met me, the reader, at the level I’m at, using a typical social-media method to drive home points in refreshing ways. So I entered "Lead" with high show more expectations, and it absolutely met–in fact, exceeded–them.

It’s quickly evident that Lead is not based on tweets, nor is a daily devotional. This is an actual leadership book, particularly geared toward those in church-leadership positions–a nice change, as I’ve read a lot of business-leadership books lately. I found the read both approachable and applicable.

While you and I may not be in church leadership per se, we can all lead. John C. Maxwell likes to say that “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” (Told you I’ve been reading business-leadership books! LOL.) And Lead is a fantastic resource for both “titled” leaders and laymen alike. Not only did I gain insight into how I could lead within the church, but also into the struggles said church leaders may deal with. The church is made up of individuals, and change begins with individuals. I encourage believers to read and apply "Lead" within their own lives, and use it to pray for their pastors, life-group leaders, and others serving the church both visibly and behind the scenes.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher. All opinions are my own. show less

I have been slogging through this book for a loooooooong time. I would pick it up it fits and starts. I couldn't abandon it because it was too good. But I couldn't commit to it because it was too cumbersome.

First the good....

Tripp is a careful thinker who endeavors in Do You Believe? to take on twelve classic areas of systematic theology - The doctrines of Scripture, God, the Holiness of God, God's Sovereignty, God's Omnipotence, Creation, the Image of God in Man, Sin, Justification, show more Sanctification, the Perseverance and Glorification of the Saints, and Eternity. While that may seem ambition, it falls well short of the topics typically covered in a systematic theology. Missing are subjects like the Holy Spirit, the Church, and Eschatology. What he offers is solid and sound, but don't expect it to be even close to a full treatment. I don't agree with all of his positions (for example, he is much more obsessed with social justice issues than I care for), but there is no heresy here. He is squarely orthodox.

Each Doctrine is given the attention of two chapters. First, he covers the doctrine, albeit a surface level treatment. Second, he talks about the application of that doctrine in everyday life. I love the idea of that second chapter. Too many theology books shy away from application. He structures his work to focus on application in the life of the believer. It is a noble goal!

Now the frustrations...

This book has a bit of an identity crisis. It's not really theological enough to truly be a systematic theology. But it is too dense to be a mere devotional. It does not fit squarely in either category. And I'm not sure if that is a strength or a weakness. I wish he had leaned harder into the theology.

Tripp is a "list" writer. Stylistically, he likes to make a statement and then flesh out that statement in sentences that follow. Sometimes he can run his lists up to fifteen sentences. Let me give you an example. In his chapter, "God's Omnipotence in Everyday Life," he is pleading the case that the power of God "is ultimate power, bigger than anything you face inside or outside of you." He follows this up with one of his "lists."

"You don't have the power to make your children want to do what is right, but God does. you don't have the power to change your boss, but God does. you don't have the power to work up courage in your defeated heart, but God does. You don't have the power to bring sweet peace into your marriage, but God does. you don't have the power to reconcile that relationship, but God does" (177).

Every word there is true! And these lists can be a powerful communication tool. I sometimes do the same thing in sermons. Only I will typically do it once per sermon. Tripp will do it two or three times per chapter! And it just sort of gets old. I get that he is making application for those that want or need it. Or maybe he is making application for those who don't need it. Or maybe he is making application for those who don't realize they need it, but really do. (See what I'm doing here?) I guess I just don't want that much of it. The list methodology was all over this book and it wasn't my cup of tea.

Overall, I see that this book has a good purpose for a theological novice or a newer believer or a small group wanting to stick their toes in the theological pond. show less