Yearning: Living Between How It Is and How It Ought to Be

Does God want us fulfilled? Popular psychology says we should be fulfilled. Advertisements tease us with dozens of ways we can be fulfilled. Many preachers and book promise Christian fulfillment. But in this surprising (and surprisingly liberating) book, Craig Barnes suggests we weren’t created to be whole or complete. With a fresh reading of the early chapters of Genesis, he says that much of our pain and disillusionment arises from wrong expectations of the gospel and of life. Echoing comedian Bob Newhart, Barnes ＂would like to make a motion that we face reality.＂ He candidly draws from his own experience as a son, a student, a husband, a father and a pastor to help us see what we all know but are so reluctant to say aloud--that biblical living will not save us from crises or unfulfillment. Barnes writes for anyone who knows that faith must be tough enough to ＂hold up in the emergency rooms of life.＂ But he doesn’t merely help us face reality. He helps us see how our needs and limitations are gifts, the best opportunities we have to receive God’s grace. Because of that, Yearning may be the most honest and the most helpful book you’ll read this year.

M. Craig Barnes (PhD, University of Chicago) is Meneilly Professor of Leadership and Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and senior pastor at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a former senior pastor of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. His books include Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, An Extravagant Mercy: Reflections on Ordinary Things, Sacred Thirst: Finding God in the Desert of Our Longings and Hustling God: Why We Work So Hard for What God Wants to Give . Barnes is also the author of numerous published articles and is a speaker at seminary and church events.