God over Good: Saving Your Faith by Losing Your Expectations of God

Popular podcaster and pastor challenges readers to deconstruct and reconstruct their faith, looking beyond their doubts, disappointments, and expectations to fully experience the God that is greater than their own sense of goodness.From the Inside FlapLuke Norsworthy (MDiv, Abilene Christian University) is the senior minister of the 1,500-member Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. A frequent speaker at universities, retreats, and conferences, he is the host of the popularNewsworthy with Norsworthy podcast on which he has rubbed shoulders with some of the brightest and most prominent voices in theology, including N. T. Wright, Barbara Brown Taylor, Miroslav Volf, Walter Brueggemann, John Ortberg, and others. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three daughters.Trusting God when God doesn't live up to your expectationsGod is good. Except . . . God doesn't always seem to be what we would callgood. A good father wouldn't make it so difficult to get to know him, would he? And if God is all-powerful, wouldn't God ensure that we never suffer? Either our understanding of God is incorrect, or our definition ofgood is inadequate.In a world that is messy and a church that is imperfect, it's easy to let our faith be lost. But that doesn't mean we have to lose God. It means we must consider that perhaps our idealized expectations are wrong.With transparency about his own struggles with cynicism and doubt, pastor Luke Norsworthy will help you trade your confinement of God to an anemic definition ofgood for confidence in the God who is present in everything.|Luke Norsworthy (MDiv, Abilene Christian University) is the senior minister of the 1,500-member Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. A frequent speaker at universities, retreats, and conferences, he is the host of the popularNewsworthy with Norsworthy podcast on which he has rubbed shoulders with some of the brightest and most prominent voices in theology, including N. T. Wright, Barbara Brown Taylor, Miroslav Volf, Walter Brueggemann, John Ortberg, and others. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three daughters.From the Back Cover"Luke Norsworthy's inviting, accessible, and entirely enjoyable new book is an invitation to come to know God better. Or to come to know God for the first time. Highly recommended."--James Martin, SJ, author ofJesus: A Pilgrimage andThe Jesuit Guide"Luke's insight and humor come through his stories and theology in beautifully carved pieces we can savor long after the reading is over. Part memoir, part preaching, part amazing storytelling--it's all a gift offered by a man of great faith who has chosen God over everything."--Becca Stevens, author, priest, and founder of Thistle Farms"What a generous gift! Norsworthy opens wide the door of his heart to reveal his struggle to find a path through the dark woods of spiritual doubt and uncertainty. In this book, alternately moving and humorous, he doesn't abandon us in the now-all-too-familiar landscape of religious cynicism but instead joyfully leads us into the land of hope and resurrection."--Ian Morgan Cron, author ofThe Road Back to You; host of the podcastTypology"Luke transparently shares the struggle many have with a faith focused on certain answers because that type of faith ends up delivering only more questions. But Luke doesn't leave us there; he shows us a way to the other side of cynicism. God isn't what we always expect, but God is always beautiful. There is life and love on the other side of simplicity, and Luke guides us toward it."-- Fr. Richard Rohr, author ofEverything Belongs andFalling Upward"Luke does such a brave job in this book--telling the truth, asking the questions many of us aren't willing to ask (but hear in our heads), and walking us all toward honesty and freedom and the person we really want to be.God over Good will rescue you in ways you didn't know you needed re