Good Enough
40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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ABOUT THE BOOK
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A compassionate, intelligent, and wry series of Christian daily reflections on learning to live with imperfection in a culture of self-help that promotes endless progress, from the New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason and the executive producer of the Everything Happens podcast
In Kate Bowler’s bestselling memoir Everything Happens for a Reason, readers witnessed the ways she, as a divinity-school professor and young mother, reckoned with a stage IV cancer diagnosis; in her follow-up memoir, No Cure for Being Human, she unflinchingly and winsomely unpacked the ways that life becomes both hard and beautiful when we abandon certainty and the illusion of control in our lives. Now, in their first-ever devotional book, Kate Bowler and co-author Jessica Richie offer 40ish short spiritual reflections on how we can make sense of life not as a pursuit of endless progress but as a chronic condition. This book is a companion for when you want to stop feeling guilty that you’re not living your best life now.
Written gently and with humor, Good Enough is permission for all those who need to hear that there are some things you can fix—and some things you can’t. And it’s okay that life isn’t always better. In these gorgeously written reflections, Bowler and Richie offer fresh imagination for how truth, beauty, and meaning can be discovered amid the chaos of life. Their words celebrate kindness, honesty, and interdependence in a culture that rewards ruthless individualism and blind optimism. Ultimately, in these pages we can rest in the encouragement to strive for what is possible today—while recognizing that though we are finite, the life in front of us can be beautiful.
Advent Guide
A Free 40-Day Companion to Read, Reflect, and Pray
Lent Guide
Free Individual, Group, and Sermon Guides
Endorsements
“Is it okay if I buy one copy of “Good Enough” for my bedside table and one for the minivan? Another for the kitchen counter and one for my purse? Because I’m going to do exactly that with this book. For those of us who are trying to live within the space between “everything’s possible” and “nothing is possible,” this book is exactly that companion I know her authors to be. Brilliant, hilarious, absurd, honest, hopeful, true hearted, and good, good, good to the core. What good guides for us. (Okay, fine, maybe another copy or seven for gifts.)”
— Sarah Bessey
NYT bestseller “A Rhythm of Prayer” and “Jesus Feminist“
“This book understands me, especially the parts I keep hidden for fear people will think less of me, or will cross the street when they see me coming, if they know how sad I can get.
Kate and Jess bless those who mourn. They also connect the dots between feelings and actions, giving readers concrete things to do that lead to small springs of healing bubbling up all over the place. Their laughter keeps the whole thing moving, proving their thesis: that love for life and others starts right where joy and sorrow meet.”
—Barbara Brown Taylor
Author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark
“With humor and wit, GOOD ENOUGH guides us into a spirituality that is at once rich and humble; challenging us to search for beauty and meaning in deep waters, yet never asking more of us than a tender and compassionate God would. This devotional is medicine for all those thirsting for mercy in the mundane.”
—Cole Arthur Riley
Creator and writer of Black Liturgies
“Winsome, wise, and true, Good Enough is a devotional for those of us who can’t stand devotionals. Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie are gentle, funny companions for the “journey”—a word I used because they hate it. (Read this book and find out why.) Overflowing with grace, good humor, and clear-eyed counsel, their warm and tender writing pushes back against my cynicism and my fear. Their generous blessings soften my curmudgeonly heart. And ultimately, they convince me: I don’t need to be perfect, but I can be good enough—and there’s tremendous hope in that good news.”
— Author, Does Jesus Really Love Me? and co-curator of Evolving Faith
About the Authors
Kate Bowler
is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved), No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear), and Good Enough, as well as Blessed and The Preacher’s Wife. She is the host of the popular podcast Everything Happens. A Duke University professor, she earned a master’s degree in religion from Yale Divinity School and a PhD from Duke University.
Jessica Richie
is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Good Enough, the executive director of the Everything Happens Project at Duke Divinity School, and the executive producer of the Everything Happens podcast. She received her MDiv from Duke Divinity School.
