Top 3 Books, 2025

Where the Light Fell, Philip Yancey

From a disturbing childhood shaped by fundamentalism and racism, Yancey emerges as a portrait of God’s gentle pursuit.  He says, “I assumed that surrender to God would involve a kind of shrinking - avoiding temptation, grimly focusing on the “spiritual” things while I prepared for the afterlife. On the contrary, God’s good world presents itself as a gift to enjoy with grace-healed eyes.”

Answers to Prayer from George Muller’s Narratives, George Muller 

Muller’s life message to believers was this: no matter the century in which we live, God’s care and promises apply to us. Journaling about this, Muller writes, “So many believers with whom I became acquainted were harassed and distressed in mind or brought guilt upon their conscience on account of not trusting in the Lord…[so] the first and primary object of the work was (and still is) that God might be magnified by the fact that the orphans under my care are provided with all they need only by prayer and faith, without anyone being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen that God is faithful still and hears prayers still.”

From Strength to Strength, Arthur Brooks

Brooks outlines the path to joyful purpose later in life, courageously transitioning from a career based on fluid intelligence to one grounded in crystallized intelligence, inspired by the fact that, “The people who are happiest and most satisfied in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are those who made this leap.”

Let me know if one of these makes it on your 2026 list!