The Deeper Life - Book Review

“Choose your foundation carefully. Your identity, purpose, values, priorities, goals, time, and ultimate legacy will all stand or fall on this foundation,” introduces Daniel Henderson, in his new book The Deeper Life.  He sets out to show how to implement a view of God into every aspect of your life. 

In the first half of the book, each chapter addresses an aspect of our longings: Who is God, who am I, why am I here, what really matters, what shall I do, how shall I do it, when shall I do it, and how will I finish.  “A Deeper Life Story” at the end of each chapter is a story told by another person about how the principles (the principles of Daniel Henderson) changed their lives.

In the second half of the book, “Discovery Exercises” are designed to take the theological truth that you know and to daily experience it with God. The written exercises encourage the reader to think and practice biblical truths into each of the aspects of our longings.  In the appendices, he includes some interesting material that I want to use in my prayer time, like lists of who Jesus is, attributes of God, Old Testament names of God, titles and names of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit, and who I am in Christ.

My favorite chapter was on biblical time management in When Shall I Do It? The author took a different direction that seemed contradictory to his previous chapters, and I was delighted.  Biblical time management isn’t about squeezing as much as you can out of every minute or controlling your calendar.  It is walking in the Spirit with dependence on Him, and being open to “moments”.  Necessary errands can become encounters with eternity if we maximize our moments instead of trying to manage our minutes.

This book would be more appropriately named The Christian Life.  It’s not about living a deeper Christian life like I thought when I picked the title.  The book tends to be theoretical with an attempt to be practical, and the author seems to come across exalting himself with some name-dropping to give himself credibility.  But as I overlook that, the author reminds me that it is good to live intentionally, to set goals, and to live in the moment rather than managing my minutes.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review.

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