Steve Wiens - Whole: Restoring What Is Broken in Me, You, and the Entire World

This book is beautifully written, and the honesty in its pages invites the readers honestywhich is, in my view, one of the best things a book can do. This is a book that will transform you.

SHAUNA NIEQUIST

Bestselling author of Present Over Perfect

Steve Wiens is a writer unique in my experience of reading books, and I have read a lot of them. What is unique about Whole is that he inserts you (me!) into the biblical story in a way that makes the story convincingly contemporary with us. His children (he has boys), his wife (one wife), and his friends (he has many) become authentically biblical, and we find ourselves living in our own backyards what we previously had only read about.

EUGENE H. PETERSON

Professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver

If you are looking for a simplistic solution to the brokenness you see in the world (and in yourself), this book wont be helpful. But if youre willing to leave the known for the unknown and if you dare to ask the soul-enriching questions found in Steve Wienss imaginative work, you just might find yourself on the road to wholeness.

RICHARD ROHR

Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation

Ive been lucky enough to sit around a fire in Steves backyard and talk into the night, and I left that evening feeling as though Id been breathing fresh air into my lungs. You will feel the same when you read Whole. Steve has a gift for telling stories that connect at the deepest level to your own story. This is inspired and compassionate writing that invites us to step into our own promised land.

STU GARRARD

Songwriter and author of Words from the Hill

Many authors who brave the subject of brokenness lead us down one of two paths: One glosses over the pain with sugary anecdotes or bulleted prescriptions. The other leaves us wallowing in the pain a bit too long, with perhaps no hope for redemption. Rarely does an author show us another way. Steve Wiens does just thatcarving out a new trail where brokenness meets beauty, where humility is a catalyst for becoming whole.

MATT BAYS

Author of Finding God in the Ruins

Steve Wienss book Whole stopped me in my tracks. It is a timely, prophetic message not only for the culture and church at large but also for every individual seeking a life of shalom on a deeply personal level. This book forced me to look at others with compassion and gentleness, grace and potential. But more important, it forced me to look inwardly at myself with that same gentle spirit. Im so grateful for this book, and I look forward to handing out copies to everyone I know along the path to wholeness.

NISH WEISETH

Author of Speak: How Your Story Can Change the World

Steve reminds us that it is in the ordinary of everyday life that we are daily invited to experience and participate in the extraordinary. Not extraordinary in the sense of superheroes, but in the simple journey of living into who we were created to be all along. We are the restored ones, and in the sacred mundane of everyday life, we are invited to participate with God in restoring our broken world. This book is not only a reminder of who we are but also an invitation into our collective healing. Lets get after it together.

JON HUCKINS

Cofounding director of The Global Immersion Project

I am a huge fan of pastor Steve Wiens and his savory new book, Whole. I tore into it, huge chunks at a time, hoping that his words would heal the hunger in me. Instead, he convinced me that hunger is the lifeblood of being human and that questions are, like bread crumbs, the path to wholeness. If you, too, need fresh perspective on your story, Wiens is a salty sage worth reading.

ERIN LANE

Author of Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

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Whole: Restoring What Is Broken in Me, You, and the Entire World

Copyright 2017 by Stephen Wiens. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team:

Don Pape, Publisher

David Zimmerman, Editor

Daniel Farrell, Designer

Cover photographs of ceramic swallow copyright Des Metzler. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Author is represented by Christopher Ferebee, Attorney and Literary Agency, www.christopherferebee.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at , or call 1-800-323-9400.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-63146-404-1

ISBN 978-1-63146-405-8 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-63146-406-5 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-63146-407-2 (Apple)

Build: 2017-07-14 17:16:47

For Mary

FOREWORD

THIS IS A BOOK about wholeness, and as that is the case, I suppose it should start with a caveat: Wholenessmost of us dont come by it honest.

In my midthirties, I found myself in a premature midlife crisis. It was not the sort of crisis brought on by the boredom of a career, nor was it born of that time-honored existential question of white middle-class maledom: Does my life matter? This was a real crisis, a familial one. The snake eyes of sickness were staring down my youngest son, and who could say whether hed make it?

Life did what it doesit brought pain to bearand as that pain pressed and pressed and pressed, everything began to fracture. There were things thatfollower of Christ as I was, student of the Scriptures and allI could have done in the breaking season. I could have turned to the tradition of my faith, could have searched for solace in Gods history of restoration, reclamation, and reconstitution. I could have found myself in the narrative of wholeness handed down through the ages. This was not what I chose. Instead, I numbed the pain of cracking up by crawling to the bottom of too many plastic bottles of Gordons Gin.