Steve Wiens - Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekindling Your Faith

On every page Wiens reveals where to find God. It isnt easy. Its really simple. Exactly.

Jon M. Sweeney, coauthor, Meister Eckharts Book of the Heart

If you miss the childlike wonder that once intuited there was more to life than meets the eye, commune with these pages and you just might find your soul.

Phileena Heuertz, founding partner, Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism; author of Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life and Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation

Wiens circles round questions that have intrigued people for millennia: Where am I? What is God? How do I love? He takes his faith as seriously as his doubt, and offers practices that exercise both body and belief.

Pdraig Tuama, author of In the Shelter; inaugural poet laureate of The On Being Project

Wiens winsomely guides readers through a collection of time-tested spiritual practices that will ground them in the present moment and grow their awareness of Gods loving presence.

Ed Cyzewski, author of Flee, Be Silent, Pray and Reconnect: Spiritual Restoration from Digital Distraction

In a world where it seems everyone is deconstructing faith, its refreshing to read a book about rekindling faith. Trust the guidance of Steve Wiens as he offers an invitation to practices that will lead you to communion with the divine. Shining Like the Sun takes us on a journey of rediscovering the God of the Bible. You will find Steve Wiens to be a compassionate guide to bring clarity and gentle encouragement.

Karen Gonzalez, author of The God Who Sees

I have followed Steve Wiens for a long time, and he has never failed to open my eyes to things I have missed, things right there in front of me. When I read his book Whole, I followed him into the idea that I could find myself in many places in Scripture. When I listen to his podcast, I follow him into new ideas of faith and love and stillness. I would follow Steve Wiens anywhere. In Shining Like the Sun, he asks us to follow him on a search for God. Sign me up.

Shawn Smucker, author of Light from Distant Stars

If faith is a high-flying circus act
the biggest moments happen after youve
let go of one trapeze
but before youve grabbed the
other.

It may be terrifying to hang there
in between those two horizontal bars
but how can you resist
swinging even farther
now?

This book is for anyone who wants to learn
to love that moment between
letting go and grabbing hold.

Well, here you are, reading a book about rekindling your faith, for Gods sake, despite the fact that youve long since lost the scent, despite the church and its foul theology, despite your worn-out eureka moments having long since expired. Maybe the only thing you know for sure is that some essential something has gone missing, and youre willing to look anywhere to find it. You keep trying to find God because there really are things you still want from God, and that desire is perhaps the most glorious thing about you.

Question: Where are you looking?

Theres an ancient story in which God, having recently created human beings, realized that a terrible mistake had been made. After calling the elders together, God explained, I have just created humans, and now I dont know what Im going to do. They will always be talking to me, and wanting things from me, and I wont ever get any rest. The elders furrowed their brows. One by one, they all agreed: God had a very big problem indeed. They suggested God could hide on Mount Everest, or the moon, or even deep inside the earth.

No, God said. Humans are resourceful; eventually they will find me there. After a very long silence, one elder whispered something in Gods ear. Thats it! God shouted, smiling. Ill hide inside of each human; they will never find me there!

The punchline is obvious: we look for God everywhere except inside ourselves. And why would we? The journey within is troubling enough without wondering if well find God-as-Mary-Poppins, dragging our dirty laundry out of its hiding places (spit-spot!), or worse, that well find a kind but clear breakup letter left on the pillow (its not you, its me). And anyway, youve most likely already found and lost God more than once. For all we know, our search for God may have been responsible for the finding and also for the losing.

But what if its not a joke? What if God really is hidden inside us?

Maybe it feels absurd, nave, and overly self-referential to even indulge that question. If we look deep within ourselves, whatever is down there must be unbearably shy because it only seems to poke its head out when we grieve a terrible loss or taste the emptiness of successor when we realize someone genuinely likes us. Indulging that question can feel a little too much like a riddle when were looking for answers. I hate riddles. It takes a dozen or so wrong answers before you finally get the right one. I hate how the wrong answers clutter up the space we need to figure out the right answer. But I also love riddles. I love that laugh-out-loud moment of pure joy when the answer pops into your head, when you realize you were making it so much harder than it needed to be.

And isnt it the absurdity of a God who would hide within humans at least part of what keeps us looking in the first place? Its wildly unreasonable to expect well find what were looking for, but humans are notorious suckers for wildly unreasonable quests (a few of my favorite suckers include Sir Ernest Shackleton, Mary Shelley, Mahatma Gandhi, Jean Vanier, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Virgin Mary). Maybe its nave to assume God even cares about what we want, but a little navet doesnt mean our deepest desires are weightless things that float around in a zero-gravity chamber until someone packs them away again.

Finally, a brief word about this wildly unreasonable quest: its not a scavenger hunt and we arent looking for a needle in a haystack. There will be no searching for the face of Jesus on a tortilla. Paradoxically, this quest wont require us to find anything. Were going to need to pay careful attention to where we are instead of overfocusing on where we are going. Were going to see haystacks as great places to take naps, and were going to let the needles find themselves. Were going to get stuck in certain places and feel tempted to leave before we should. Were going to be tempted to avoid certain places where we really need to linger. Were going to end up in places that seem like no place at all.