Gratitude in Life's Trenches: How to Experience the Good Life. . . Even When Everything Is Going Wrong

16361-BKS

$18.95

No end of books these days offer us techniques for self-improvement. Taking a different tack, Robin Phillips shows that God meets us where we are, in the pain and heartache of the present moment. Instead of looking for a way to escape from hardship, we can cultivate an attitude of gratitude, peace, and self-acceptance that will transform our experience of suffering.

Drawing on his own experiences and his work as a consultant in the behavioral health industry - as well as stories of saints and sufferers, teachings of the Fathers, and recent discoveries in neuroscience - Phillips shows us that the journey to personal well-being is one we can all travel, regardless of the hardships we may face.

About the Author: Robin Phillips is a freelance author and researcher living in the Pacific Northwest. He has a Master’s in Historical Theology from King’s College London and is completing a Master’s in Library Science through the University of Oklahoma. He contributes to a variety of publications, including Touchstone and Salvo, and in his spare time he loves playing the piano, reading, hiking, spending time with family and friends, and writing for his blog. While researching for his earlier book, Saints and Scoundrels, Robin was impressed by heroes of the faith who retained a spirit of gratitude in the face of suffering and affliction. After experiencing some setbacks in his own life, he decided to study how these Christians were able to live the good life even when everything was going wrong. This book is the result of that spiritual journey.

Praise for Gratitude in Life's Trenches:

"Modern pop Christianity too often deals with suffering through cotton-candy forms of denial. Orthodox Christianity, by contrast, sees that suffering can be for our own salvation -- but only if we accept it in a Christian way. Robin Phillips uses Scripture, Orthodox teaching, and stories from everyday life to show how we can not only carry our crosses, but also be made holy by them. Phillips has a gift for making profound wisdom accessible to a wide readership. This book will open closed minds, gladden weary hearts and change people's lives." -Rod Dreher, senior editor at The American Conservative and author of The Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents

"Who among us has not, at one time or another, found themselves trapped in the dark, disorienting trenches of life? When we are at our lowest, what we most long for is not an end to pain, but a lens to help us locate meaning from within it. Like a luminous beacon, Robin Phillips's Gratitude in Life's Trenches guides travelers lost on the seas of stress, weariness, chronic toxic thinking, and despondency back to the harbor of gratitude and the peace only Christ offers." -Nicole M. Roccas, PhD, author of Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life