Sparkhouse

The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other

Loneliness has reached epidemic proportions, according to many sources. In an age of mobility and fraying civic life, we are all susceptible to its power. In The Great Belonging, writer and spiritual director Charlotte Donlon reframes loneliness and offers us a language for the disquiet within. Ultimately, Donlon claims, we can find connection that emerges from honesty, and she offers tools, resources, and practices for transforming loneliness into true belonging.

9781506461960

IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives

It's easy to view our online presence as fake, to see the internet as a space we enter when we aren't living our real, offline lives. IRL, Chris Stedman's insightful exploration of authenticity in the digital age, shines a light on how age-old notions of realness can be freshly understood in our online lives. Stedman invites readers to consider how they use the internet to fulfill the essential need to feel real, online and off.

9781506463513

Brave Talk: Building Resilient Relationships in the Face of Conflict

When we disagree about fundamental issues, it can be difficult to maintain close relationships. In Brave Talk, communications expert Melody Stanford Martin teaches us to treat every conflict as if it's an impasse. By learning to temporarily suspend our desire to resolve differences, we make space for deeper understanding and stronger ties. Brave Talk blends humor, creativity, and interactive learning to help everyday people develop better skills for navigating conflict.

9781506462448

The Price of Admission: Embracing a Life of Grief and Joy

On the surface Liz Petrone looks as if she has it all. But, like many women, she is desperately lonely and dealing with ghosts of her own. Through a combination of personal narrative and common truths, Liz provides a timeless reminder to world-weary readers that, just as birth follows death, light does indeed follow darkness; and that, often, it is because of our pain--and not despite it--that we grow, survive, and--yes--thrive.

9781506458786

Worth It: Overcome Your Fears and Embrace the Life You Were Made For

Brit Barron grew up in an Evangelical megachurch in the '90s, boxed in by her fears, unable to realize her full potential. All that changed when she fell in love with a girl named Sami.

Worth It shares her story to inspire us to overcome our own fears--the fears that keep us from evolving beyond the narratives that have been defined by others. When we do, we'll find out it was so worth it!

9781506463278

The Long Night: Readings and Stories to Help You through Depression

When you're in the midst of terrible depression, the days and weeks can feel like an eternity. Drawing on the wisdom of spiritual figures from the past and present--including Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and many others--The Long Night is a comforting and inspirational companion. Writer, editor, and minister Jessica Kantrowitz has been where you are. As a mentor and friend, she will walk with you on this journey toward life and light.

9781506456645

The Athlete Inside: The Transforming Power of Hope, Tenacity, and Faith

Four years ago, Sue Reynolds was morbidly obese. Now, she's a 135-pound triathlete who competes at world championships. The Athlete Inside follows her journey from her first walk to the neighbor's mailbox to finishing sixth at the World Triathlon Championship. A world-class athlete and grandmother, Reynolds is proof that it's never too late to transform your life. Her story is one of hope, tenacity, and faith, and how we each can discover amazing potential inside.

9781506458809

The Shift: Surviving and Thriving after Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity

When Christians are kicked out of their conservative churches or leave because they no longer feel at home, they undertake a serious shift. Colby Martin has traversed this treacherous territory, survived its hardships, and is now sharing what he's learned. This friendly survival guide will prepare readers for the pitfalls awaiting them as they shift out of their conservative world, and it will equip them for a more abundant, thriving, and peace-filled spiritual life.

9781506455495

You Can Change: Stories from Angola Prison and the Psychology of Personal Transformation

Can people make positive changes in their lives that really last? To answer this question, Dr. Mark W. Baker wound up interviewing inmates in the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, located in Angola, Louisiana. Baker uses stories from inside Angola, along with his decades of experience as a clinical psychologist, to show all of us how to change our lives for the better--no matter who we are or what we've done.

9781506455648

Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms

We all carry sexual shame. Whether we grew up in the repressive purity culture of American evangelical Christianity or not, we've all been taught in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that sex (outside of very specific contexts) is taboo. Psychotherapist Matthias Roberts helps readers overcome their shame and determine their own definition of healthy sex. Define your sexual values on your own terms, overcome your shame, and start having great, healthy sex.

9781506455662

How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World

How to Human is a tender and irreverent take on one of life's most fundamental questions: how to be a better human in a world dead set against it. Alice Connor offers sage, no-nonsense wisdom, encouraging you to embrace the chaos and see life as an experiment--not a quest for the right answers.

9781506449104

Confident Humility: Becoming Your Full Self without Becoming Full of Yourself

Self-help books emerge from one of two flawed views of the self--that people are fundamentally bad or fundamentally good--and these mutually exclusive ditches are destructive. Dan Kent presents a third view. He shows how the humility Jesus revealed offers the most accurate, freeing view of the self. Whereas the ditches both lead to powerlessness and passivity, humility as Jesus teaches it is empowering, fosters proactivity, and serves as a scaffold for true confidence.

9781506451923

Praying through Grief: Poems and Meditations for Healing

"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies." William Penn With classic texts from the Bible...

9781506458311

The Essential Guide to OCD: Help for Families and Friends

Are you living or working with someone who has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)? Perhaps they're your parent or child, close friend, parent, or colleague. OCD...

9781506458199

First Steps out of Anxiety

In healthy, moderate amounts, anxiety is a helpful tool meant to alert a person to danger and prepare the body for response. However, when levels...

9781506458205

First Steps through Separation & Divorce

If your marriage is ending and you find yourself staring at the future not knowing how to tackle the legal side, the emotional side, the...

9781506458243

The Essential Guide to Children and Separation: Surviving Divorce & Family Break-Up

Do you know a child affected by divorce? It could be your own child or grandchild, your niece, nephew, or even one of your students....

9781506458182

First Steps to Living with Dementia

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with dementia, you likely have a variety of pressing, overwhelming questions: What is dementia? Is it...

9781506458212

First Steps through Bereavement

Bereavement affects everyone differently. You may feel angry, sad, nostalgic, confused, or a paralyzing combination all of the above. However bereavement affects you, it will...

9781506458229

First Steps out of Depression

Being depressed can leave you feeling completely paralyzed. Getting out of bed seems impossible--much less getting out of the depression. If you are struggling with...

9781506458236