Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!: Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens

This is a perfect book for blessing our imperfect, messy, wonderful, disappointing, hopeful, human lives. And Kate Bowler is one of my people -- a fellow Stage IV cancer haver, a professor of Church History at Duke Divinity School, and a truly inspired writer. I devoured her memoirs about the experience of being diagnosed with and then living with a metastatic cancer. I love her podcast (Everything Happens). And so, I was pretty sure I'd enjoy this alternative devotional. And of course I did! This is a collection of 89 blessings, each including a bible verse, a narrative, a poem/blessing, and a reflection/action prompt. It includes sections that can be used as a Lenten devotional and an Advent devotional, but all the sections can also show more be used independently. With titles like "not drowning in other people's problems," "you're not sleeping much," "you're being too productive," "for that unsettled feeling," and "feeling meh," these are reflections that get at the heart of our modern lives. I have a pretty eclectic and non-traditional spirituality, and while these are definitely Christian devotions grounded in the Bible, they spoke to me deeply and scratched where I itched. Bowler's combination of humor, earnestness, and keen powers of observation are in full force here. A wonderful book to have at the ready or to share with someone who needs a spiritual hug. show less

The book was written while the author was dealing with cancer. While I typically love poetry and exploring connections to God, for me, the book feels desperate and it could be because I myself am a cancer survivor. And while I could continue to read her words, I am more comfortable at this time saying that if this style of writing works for you, you will love her poems of support and inspiration.

Summary:"Tender and powerful spiritual reflections and blessings that invite readers to honestly and joyfully walk through their everyday, wonderful, messy humanity, from the New York Times bestselling author of Good Enough. Kate Bowler, author of the instant New York Times bestseller Good Enough and national bestseller The Lives We Actually Have, wants to encourage people to develop their capacity to feel the breadth of their experiences. The better we are at identifying our spiritual highs and lows, the more resilient we become. In Bowler's previous books, she offered a singular way to view the everyday in all of its heartache and glory. Now in Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!, Bowler is inviting readers for the first time to fully show more embrace the terrible along with the beautiful by offering readers honest, heartfelt daily devotionals followed by blessings and action steps that lead readers to feel seen, heard and understood no matter what their day may bring. In addition, Bowler has written Advent and Lenten sections to round out the book that offer readers a rich, meaningful way to enter into these seasons of expectation and contemplation. Along the way, Bowler shares funny and poignant moments in her own life while enduring a dark season of pain. As she says, "What I want more than anything is to bless you and me right now, and feel the truth of our realities without letting reality itself overwhelm us...So here's to us having beautiful, terrible days.""-- Provided by publisher show less