Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
WRITING HAS BEEN A SOLITARY TASK—but this book is the fruit of community.
To my wife Kori—thank you for reading every page of every draft. You asked the right questions and kept me honest to my own experience. You’re my best critic because you know my worst vices. Year after year you encouraged me, and in the final year you gave up Saturdays so I could write. I could not have done this without your love and steady help. I love you—always.
To my kids, Gray, Abigail, and Liv—thank you for cheering me on. I love being your dad and walking this journey with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this window into my inner world—and how much I’m still learning.
Dad, thank you for reading early chapters with me over lunch—you made me feel like the next C. S. Lewis. Mom, thank you for your constant love and support.
Trey Williford—thank you for more than a decade of Friday breakfasts, for questioning every idea in this book, and for calling me out whenever I tried to sound smarter than I am. Shannon Ross—thank you for reading early drafts and sharing long lunches; your feedback and encouragement kept me going. Lelia Miller—thank you for reading the manuscript, offering thoughtful feedback, and tracking down many citations.
Richard Foster—thank you for writing the foreword to this book in a difficult season, and for your friendship over the years. Your books showed me what it means to follow Jesus, and your life has shown me what that looks like.
Christopher Hall—in 2016, you suggested my name to the editors at Christianity Today for my first published essay. You may not have realized it then, but that simple act set my writing life in motion.
Nathan Foster—thank you for reading early chapters and speaking with honesty and kindness. James Baldwin once said of writing that, “What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.” You let me know.
Carolyn Arends—thank you for inviting me to teach an eleven-month course with the Renovaré Institute on the very themes of this book. That work sharpened this material and made these pages stronger.
To the entire Renovaré community—Board, Ministry Team, Staff, and fellow travelers—thank you for shaping my thinking and deepening my love for Jesus, his kingdom, and this ancient path. You’ve been companions in every sense of the word.
To my literary agent, Kathryn Helmers—thank you for honest critique when it mattered most and for helping me grow into the writer I hoped to become.
To my editor, Cindy Bunch—and the entire InterVarsity Press team—thanks for believing in this project, investing in it, and guiding it with care.
And finally—to all the books I’ve read and the people who wrote them. Writing, I’ve come to see, is where I put all my reading. Every page here owes something to MacDonald, von Hügel, Underhill, Weil, Lewis, L’Engle, Merton, Buechner, Berry, Nouwen, Peterson, Willard, Foster, de Waal, Ware, Williams, Behr, and Hart—and also to the devotional voices of à Kempis, de Sales, de Chantal, and Fénelon, and the ancient ones too: Antony, Athanasius, Nyssa, Basil, Benedict, and the Desert Fathers and Mothers—thank you.