STRETCHED: Faith Under Load

Faith is a muscle. It grows under load.Most devotionals comfort. This one stretches.Over fifty-one days, STRETCHED refuses to separate the three questions every believer eventually asks: What is God like? What does it mean? And what, today, am I going to do about it?Each day is a single, unhurried essay that begins with the character of God, opens the hardest philosophical question underneath it, and lands on your feet with a concrete practice. Kierkegaard and the neuroscientists share the room. Augustine, Pascal, Dostoevsky, Frankl, Bonhoeffer, Simone Weil, Howard Thurman, and C. S. Lewis all get a hearing - and so do the objectors. Nietzsche and Ivan Karamazov are handed their strongest arguments and answered honestly, not dodged. Grace runs beneath every page as the power for the stretch, never an excuse to avoid it.The journey moves through eight movements - stepping out, holding on, moving forward, being rooted, tested, joined, poured out, and finished - carrying you from the first uncertain act of faith all the way to the questions of hope, suffering, and the end.This is a devotional for readers who want their faith to think as hard as it feels - and to move.Inside you'll find: - 51 daily readings, each with a passage, reflection, a spoken word, a concrete practice, and a prayer- An eight-session small-group discussion guide- Three flexible reading plans (8-week, daily, and a Sabbath rhythm)- An index of the thinkers who appear throughoutScripture is quoted from the King James Version. Whether you read it alone or with a group, STRETCHED is built to put weight on your faith - and grow it.