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What does it mean to be blessed? Are Christians entitled to happiness, fulfilment, and perfect peace? “Holy Unhappiness” explores these questions and challenges popular notions of "the good life" and what it means to walk in communion with God.
American Christians have developed a long list of expectations about what the life with God will feel like. Many Christians rightly deny the prosperity gospel-the idea that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy-but instead embrace its more subtle spin-off, the emotional prosperity gospel, or the belief that happiness and spiritual euphoria will inevitably follow if you believe all the right things and make all the right choices. In this view, frustration is deemed unholy, fear is seen as a failure of faith, and sadness is a sign of God's disfavor.
In “Holy Unhappiness”, Amanda Held Opelt, author of A Hole in the World, grapples with her own experience of disillusionment when life with God didn't always feel the way she expected it to feel. She examines some of the historic, religious, and cultural influences that led to the idolization of positive feelings and the marginalization of negative feelings. Unpacking nine elements of life that have been tainted by the message of the emotional Prosperity Gospel—including work, marriage, parenting, calling, community, and church-she points to a new path forward, one that reimagines what the "blessed" life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look.
This is a book that asks, "what good is God?" when he doesn't always make sorrow go away or soothe every fear. It is a book that explores our aversion to sadness and counts the costs of our unrelenting commitment to optimism. This is a book that insists there is holiness to be found even in our unhappiness.
Why do we feel entitled to happiness? Why do we work so hard to avoid or ignore negative emotions like grief, disappointment, anger, and frustration?
Many evangelicals in America reject the traditional construct of the Prosperity Gospel, the idea that God will bless you with health and wealth. But many Christians still believe that God will bless them emotionally and will give them a general sense happiness, meaning, and emotional fulfillment. In this book, the author breaks down many of the expectations most Christians have surrounding emotional prosperity. She examines marriage, work, vocational calling, church involvement, ministry, personal significance, response to suffering, and spiritual growth, and how we respond when God doesn't bring us the sense of emotional fulfilment we expected in all areas. She examines the root of our disappointments and exposes the raw reality of suffering, highlighting what we can learn if we listen to our uncomfortable emotions. She offers a fresh perspective on what it means to live a blessed and abundant life in the Lord.
American Christians have developed a long list of expectations about what the life with God will feel like. Many Christians rightly deny the prosperity gospel-the idea that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy-but instead embrace its more subtle spin-off, the emotional prosperity gospel, or the belief that happiness and spiritual euphoria will inevitably follow if you believe all the right things and make all the right choices. In this view, frustration is deemed unholy, fear is seen as a failure of faith, and sadness is a sign of God's disfavor.
In “Holy Unhappiness”, Amanda Held Opelt, author of A Hole in the World, grapples with her own experience of disillusionment when life with God didn't always feel the way she expected it to feel. She examines some of the historic, religious, and cultural influences that led to the idolization of positive feelings and the marginalization of negative feelings. Unpacking nine elements of life that have been tainted by the message of the emotional Prosperity Gospel—including work, marriage, parenting, calling, community, and church-she points to a new path forward, one that reimagines what the "blessed" life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look.
This is a book that asks, "what good is God?" when he doesn't always make sorrow go away or soothe every fear. It is a book that explores our aversion to sadness and counts the costs of our unrelenting commitment to optimism. This is a book that insists there is holiness to be found even in our unhappiness.
Why do we feel entitled to happiness? Why do we work so hard to avoid or ignore negative emotions like grief, disappointment, anger, and frustration?
Many evangelicals in America reject the traditional construct of the Prosperity Gospel, the idea that God will bless you with health and wealth. But many Christians still believe that God will bless them emotionally and will give them a general sense happiness, meaning, and emotional fulfillment. In this book, the author breaks down many of the expectations most Christians have surrounding emotional prosperity. She examines marriage, work, vocational calling, church involvement, ministry, personal significance, response to suffering, and spiritual growth, and how we respond when God doesn't bring us the sense of emotional fulfilment we expected in all areas. She examines the root of our disappointments and exposes the raw reality of suffering, highlighting what we can learn if we listen to our uncomfortable emotions. She offers a fresh perspective on what it means to live a blessed and abundant life in the Lord.