The Deep Down Things: Practices for Growing Hope in Times of Despair
Ebook
There's no escaping it: everyone experiences seasons of pain and despair.
In 2019, when Amber Haines resigned from her position as church curate and walked out the church doors for the last time, she entered her own season of pain and despair. That season taught her--and her husband, Seth Haines--that the journey toward hope starts with recognizing "the deep down things."
In The Deep Down Things, Amber and Seth point to a simple truth: even in the darkest times, there are tangible signs of hope all around us. The authors demonstrate how tasting, touching, feeling, holding, and participating in these tangible acts of hope picks us up, builds our strength, and moves us into beauty, even in times of despair. They invite readers to participate with those signs of hope and thereby experience the divine love of God, even in the struggle of their everyday lives.
A lifeline for those who desperately need it, this book helps readers overcome despair, find hope, and spread that hope to an aching world.
From the Back Cover
There's no escaping it: everyone experiences seasons of pain and despair.
When Amber Haines resigned from her position as church curate, she entered her own season of grief. Through it, she and her husband, Seth, discovered that the journey toward hope starts with recognizing "the deep down things."
In The Deep Down Things, Amber and Seth point to a simple truth: even in the darkest times, there are signs of hope all around us. By tasting, touching, feeling, holding, and participating in these tangible acts of hope, we can experience the divine love of God and become agents of hope in the world.
"I want to press this book into the hands of every person I know who is suffering and also seeking something sacred, which is basically all of us."
--Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author of I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet
"This book will draw you closer to your own strength in God and leave you feeling empowered to face whatever challenges life throws your way."
--Latasha Morrison, author of the New York Times bestseller Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation
"An invitation to think truly and critically and kindly on your own story and your own faith."
--Annie F. Downs, New York Times bestselling author of That Sounds Fun
"What you hold in your hands is special and timely, and if embodied, it can do wonders within."
--Steve Carter, pastor and author of The Thing Beneath the Thing
Contents
A Letter to the Reader
1. Know the Hope of Saints
Seth: Eat the Flowers
Amber: The Gothic Middle
Practice: Pick a Patron Saint
2. Tell the Story
Seth: Choose Your Attachments
Amber: Body Talk
Practice: Create a Lifeline
3. Find God in the Stuff of Earth
Seth: Go to the River, the Trail, the Chapel
Amber: Eat the Crackers
Practice: Receive Communion
4. Create Signs
Seth: Cairnal People
Amber: Memorials Everywhere in Everyone
Practice: Build a Cairn
5. Practice Silence
Seth: Flee the World
Amber: Unresisting the Quiet
Practice: Engage Active Silence
6. Name the Knots
Seth: The Knots of a Father
Amber: On Practicing Holy Apathy
Practice: Name the Knots
7. Make Amends
Seth: The Thing about Reconciliation
Amber: Holy Shit
Practice: Repair What's Broken
8. Search for Epiphanies
Seth: Go to the Sacred Spaces
Amber: Under the Art of Monasteries
Practice: Visit a Sacred Space
9. Flip the Script
Seth: How Joy Subverts the War Machine
Amber: In Spite, Take Heart
Practice: Hold a Feast
- Title: The Deep Down Things: Practices for Growing Hope in Times of Despair
- Authors: Amber C. Haines, Seth Haines
- Publisher: Brazos Press
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781493438501, 9781587435638, 1587435632, 1493438506
- Resource ID: LLS:9781493438501
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-09-08T08:08:39Z
Amber C. Haines is the author of Wild in the Hollow: On Chasing Desire and Finding the Broken Way Home and The Mother Letters.
Seth Haines is the author of Coming Clean (winner of a Christianity Today Book Award of Merit) and The Book of Waking Up. Together with Tsh Oxenreider, he cohosts the podcast A Drink with a Friend.
Amber and Seth have experience speaking at conferences and events. They live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with their four boys.