Shauna Niequist - I Guess I Havent Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

Gentle. Loving. This tender book asks us to listen to our pain, lean into our discomfort, and trust that we can be lifted back on our feet by God and each other.

Kate C. Bowler,New York Times bestselling author of No Cure for Being Human

There are so many ways you can lose the only life you know how to live. When that happensas it will for all of us sooner or laterthe number of people willing to walk through it with us can fall into the low single digits. With this book, Shauna Niequist becomes one you can count on, no matter what. She wont lie to you about anything. She wont offer you a spiritual bypass. Instead, she will keep reminding you that what you dont know about where youre going is what oils the hinge to new life.

Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Learning to Walk in the Dark

This book is a masterpiece. It is a journey and an invitation and a joy and a heartbreak and all the things you need to read to be reminded that hope can still be found.

Annie F. Downs,New York Times bestselling author of That Sounds Fun

A seminary professor of mine once asked our class to ponder the question, What is the good life? for an entire hour-long period. I never found the perfect answer to that question, but this book may be the closest Ive come. Shauna Niequist reminds us that the abundant life isnt gained by striving or winning, but by mustering enough courage to forge ahead when our lives fall apart. She offers us the tools we need to build resistance in an age of trauma and to manage the perils of human existence in a world that is changing at warp speed. When others may preach or lecture, Shauna wonders and imagines. I Guess I Havent Learned That Yet is a 240-page invitation into a life where change is anticipated, evolution is embraced, and learning is just another word for living. If thats not the good life, then I dont know what is.

Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

Other Books by Shauna Niequist

Cold Tangerines

Bittersweet

Bread & Wine

Savor

Present Over Perfect

ZONDERVAN BOOKS

I Guess I Havent Learned That Yet

Copyright 2022 by Shauna Niequist

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Zondervan titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@Zondervan.com.

ISBN 978-0-310-35559-5 (international trade paper edition)

ISBN 978-0-310-35558-8 (audio)

Epub Edition February 2022 9780310355571

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Niequist, Shauna, author.

Title: I guess I havent learned that yet : discovering new ways of living when the old ways stop working / Shauna Niequist.

Description: Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2022. | Summary: New York Times bestselling author Shauna Niequist writes about unexpected loss, change, faith, midlife, and a move to New York City with her signature depth and vulnerability. In this book, she invites us to practice curiosity and self-compassion, to become beginners again, and to rediscover resilience and courage in our own seasons of change Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021047936 (print) | LCCN 2021047937 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310355564 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310355571 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Niequist, Shauna. | Christian life. | Christian biography.

Classification: LCC BR1725.N525 A3 2022 (print) | LCC BR1725.N525 (ebook) | DDC 277.308/3092 [B]dc23/eng/20211221

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047936

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047937

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Author is represented by The Christopher Ferebee Agency, www.christopherferebee.com.

Cover design: Lindy Martin / Faceout Studio

Cover illustration: h.yegho / Shutterstock

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

Printed in the United States of America

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For General Theological Seminary,
Good Shepherd New York,
and the city of New York
for welcoming me home
to myself

Im sitting at my desk, looking out at the Closethats what they call the green space in the center of the seminary where we live. Our apartment is on the third floor, our bedroom windows face south, and Ive wedged a tiny child-sized desk between our bed and the bookcases, because catching the light is always my priority.

This morning, Aaron and Henry took the subway to Henrys first morning of high school orientation. Henry is tall, broad-shouldered, handsome. Hes funny and kind and wears dress pants and has fabulously long, shaggy hair that hes forever sweeping out of his eyes. The week I was offered a contract to write my first book was the same week I found out I was pregnant with him, and this morning Im feeling the full circle of thisthese books and stories, the writer I have become inextricably entwined with the mother I became when Henry was born.

This book youre holding is one Ive been writing and rewriting for years, and as much as Ive struggled with it, the struggle has healed me, helped me, and forced me to make sense of my story and our worldas much as anyone can. Being a writer means being committed to paying attention, to walking through the world as a noticer. It means finding language for the seemingly unspeakable, using words to bridge the divides between us, telling stories that narrate and renarrate who we are in the world and what the world means to us.

One of the challenges of this book was defining the edges. Can it be about this too, and also this? How far can it stretch before its just a junk drawer? But looking back, Ive pushed the edges in this way in every book Ive writtena book about cooking is also about babies and friendship and prayer; a book about celebration is also about losing your job and forgiveness and Paris. Because thats how life isinterconnected and multifaceted. We carry around our whole selvesour past and our parents, our loves and our limitations, our dreams and our grocery lists and our wounds. Thats how it always is.

It may seem chaotic or like a disparate mishmash of topics and themes, as I try to write a book that encompasses faith and curiosity, compassion and self-compassion, learning to let go and learning to be a beginner again, midlife and menopause and moving. But this is how I think the world works, how our minds and spirits and conversations workor at least how mine do.