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Let God: Spiritual Conversations with François Fénelon
Too many of us walk alone. What would it be like to have a wise spiritual mentor, a guide who has known years of joy and years of heartache, pen leisurely, poignant letters conversing with your questions on life, God and love?
In Let God: Spiritual Conversations with François Fénelon, private correspondence between Fénelon (a French bishop in King Louis XIV's court before being tossed due to resisting the king's power) and his friends still serving in the royal court offers penetrating, modern wisdom.
A pastor and spiritual pilgrim, Winn Collier longed for his own wise guide, an older spiritual director to listen to his story and tend to his questions. This journey led him to Fenelon. Hoping others would hear Fenelon the way he had, Let God sets Fenelon's letters within the context of conversation and friendship, exactly as these letters were first intended.
Though the letters are old, the questions are contemporary. Those new to faith, exploring faith - or those guiding others in faith - will find wisdom and joy in these pages.
In Let God: Spiritual Conversations with François Fénelon, private correspondence between Fénelon (a French bishop in King Louis XIV's court before being tossed due to resisting the king's power) and his friends still serving in the royal court offers penetrating, modern wisdom.
A pastor and spiritual pilgrim, Winn Collier longed for his own wise guide, an older spiritual director to listen to his story and tend to his questions. This journey led him to Fenelon. Hoping others would hear Fenelon the way he had, Let God sets Fenelon's letters within the context of conversation and friendship, exactly as these letters were first intended.
Though the letters are old, the questions are contemporary. Those new to faith, exploring faith - or those guiding others in faith - will find wisdom and joy in these pages.
152 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2007
125 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Winn Collier
16 books88 followersWinn has written for periodicals such as Washington Post, Christian Century, Soul Journey, Christianity Today, In Touch, Campus Life, Leadership Journal, Radiant, Preaching Today and Clear & Seven. For six years, Winn was the Deeper Walk editor for Relevant Magazine. His first solo book, Restless Faith: Hanging on to a God Just out of Reach is a candid exploration into the perplexing, riveting and mysterious nature of God - and the humility we discover in the encounter. His second book Let God: The Transforming Wisdom of Francois Fenelon enters conversation with a 17th century French spiritual guide. Winn's most recent book, Holy Curiosity: Encountering Jesus' Provocative Questions, explores the strange reality that Jesus often held out a question rather than an answer. Winn's first fiction was the epistolary novel Love Big, Be Well: Letters to a Small-Town Church which narrates the story of Jonas McAnn and the community of Granby Presbyterian via letters Jonas writes to his friends (i.e. "congregation). Winn's most recent book is A Burning in My Bones, the authorized biography of Eugene Peterson.
A pastor for 25 years and the founding pastor of All Souls in Charlottesville, Virginia, Winn and his family now live in Holland, Michigan, where he teaches at Western Theological Seminary and directs the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Winn earned a PhD in religion and literature from the University of Virginia.
A pastor for 25 years and the founding pastor of All Souls in Charlottesville, Virginia, Winn and his family now live in Holland, Michigan, where he teaches at Western Theological Seminary and directs the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Winn earned a PhD in religion and literature from the University of Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 29, 2020
"It is a stark truth when we first run up against it: God isn't always the safe bet or the sure thing. God disappoints us, and this disappointment can be the bitterest kind. It often comes in those tender places where our hearts are most vulnerable or most hopeful or most desperate. We believe God will act for us, and sometimes...we hear nothing" (1).
"Becoming a follower of God is hard because it requires that we submit ourselves fully to a God who is other than us. We must let go of our insistence that we know best what we need. We must let go of our demands that God act when and how we demand...[God] will help us, but he must upset our addiction to control. He will have to unravel all the demands we have placed on him. This is why God's disappointment is necessary. He is helping us, peeling back our fingers, loosening our white-knuckled grip from our life. He has to; if we will ever be free in his care, he has to" (2).
"We would never get over ourselves if God always worked out in the open where we could always see him, with God always bringing some grand miracle to our rescue. It is difficult for God to do a good work if he is limited to working only in broad daylight. It is difficult for God to do a good work if he is limited to using only what is comfortable or easy or obvious" (8).
"With all the mental energy we exert, we can spend so much of our life hoarding knowledge that we will need another whole life to try to actually live any of it. We face the very real danger of thinking that our accumulation of 'spiritual' knowledge is the indicator of our spiritual development. Not true.. We love the learning, the knowledge, the illumination of ideas, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. But unfortunately, we do not love simply trusting, simply obeying, simply living" (21).
"I have a hope you will begin to experience the pervasive peace that comes into your life when you stop the pedantic scrutiny. Stop keeping track of how well you are doing. Stop living on high alert, trying to mark every inch of spiritual progress. That's enough to drive a person crazy" (22).
"Stop reading about love. Receive it. When God offers you mercy and friendship in a way you don't prefer (a way that doesn't contribute to your looking 'good' or 'spiritual'), then it is only pride and self that cause you to shove grace away. How can you pray for God's grace when you attach demands that grace can come only if it makes you look good?" (33-34).
"The self-voice obsesses to know exactly what everyone's opinion is of us, who likes us and who doesn't, who will feed our ego and who won't. The self-voice sulks unless someone drones on about how fabulous we are, how beautiful, how good. The God-voice wants self to be forgotten" (39).
"true faith always sees God--and only God--at work right in the middle of the action...true faith never delivers the sort of human certainty we constantly look for...If we drew relief from predictable patterns, we'd trust that instead of trusting God" (41).
"Here's a spiritual rule of thumb: when something connects with us deeply, lighting a little fire in us or giving us joy, then God is speaking...At times God goes mute in all the ways you are used to hearing him. That is when you can have full confidence that God is in fact speaking. Listen carefully" (45-6, 48).
"When you are able to be as patient and kind to yourself as you are to others, giving yourself as much space as you would someone else, self-absorption is gone" (59).
"We need to be particularly on the lookout for the pride that likes to attach itself to spiritual activity. When we think we are growing wise in God's ways (getting lots of spiritual knowledge) and when we think we are becoming quite virtuous (doing or saying the right things), watch out! This is dangerous stuff" (67).
"If you will be frank and raw with your desires, I think you will please God more than if you undertake some great spiritual feat. Telling God plainly what you want--and letting yourself want it--is better than being martyred a hundred times. We hand God pleasure when we express our truest desires to him" (74).
"The hard truth is that God isn't most concerned with how to keep us alive. God is most concerned with how to help us die. Die to ourselves. Die to our delusions. Die so we can really live" (93).
"Many are deceived. They think that God's work (helping them die to their self-absorption) is causing their miserable distress. The truth is that their suffering is not a result of self-absorption being killed but rather a signal that bits of self-absorption are still very much alive. Live bodies feel pain, not corpses" (108).
"Do you want a test to know when you actually are humble? Here it is: whenever someone corrects your faults and whenever you see all the rank sickness in your heart--and you aren't surprised or offended by either--then you are humble. In that place, we don't have anything to prove, nothing to protest or protect...The correcting doesn't hurt because our identity and our well-being aren't tied up with being good, with being right" (118).
"We should treat [studying Scripture] the same as going to the corner market. We go, and we get only what we need on that trip. No more, no less" (124).
"Becoming a follower of God is hard because it requires that we submit ourselves fully to a God who is other than us. We must let go of our insistence that we know best what we need. We must let go of our demands that God act when and how we demand...[God] will help us, but he must upset our addiction to control. He will have to unravel all the demands we have placed on him. This is why God's disappointment is necessary. He is helping us, peeling back our fingers, loosening our white-knuckled grip from our life. He has to; if we will ever be free in his care, he has to" (2).
"We would never get over ourselves if God always worked out in the open where we could always see him, with God always bringing some grand miracle to our rescue. It is difficult for God to do a good work if he is limited to working only in broad daylight. It is difficult for God to do a good work if he is limited to using only what is comfortable or easy or obvious" (8).
"With all the mental energy we exert, we can spend so much of our life hoarding knowledge that we will need another whole life to try to actually live any of it. We face the very real danger of thinking that our accumulation of 'spiritual' knowledge is the indicator of our spiritual development. Not true.. We love the learning, the knowledge, the illumination of ideas, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. But unfortunately, we do not love simply trusting, simply obeying, simply living" (21).
"I have a hope you will begin to experience the pervasive peace that comes into your life when you stop the pedantic scrutiny. Stop keeping track of how well you are doing. Stop living on high alert, trying to mark every inch of spiritual progress. That's enough to drive a person crazy" (22).
"Stop reading about love. Receive it. When God offers you mercy and friendship in a way you don't prefer (a way that doesn't contribute to your looking 'good' or 'spiritual'), then it is only pride and self that cause you to shove grace away. How can you pray for God's grace when you attach demands that grace can come only if it makes you look good?" (33-34).
"The self-voice obsesses to know exactly what everyone's opinion is of us, who likes us and who doesn't, who will feed our ego and who won't. The self-voice sulks unless someone drones on about how fabulous we are, how beautiful, how good. The God-voice wants self to be forgotten" (39).
"true faith always sees God--and only God--at work right in the middle of the action...true faith never delivers the sort of human certainty we constantly look for...If we drew relief from predictable patterns, we'd trust that instead of trusting God" (41).
"Here's a spiritual rule of thumb: when something connects with us deeply, lighting a little fire in us or giving us joy, then God is speaking...At times God goes mute in all the ways you are used to hearing him. That is when you can have full confidence that God is in fact speaking. Listen carefully" (45-6, 48).
"When you are able to be as patient and kind to yourself as you are to others, giving yourself as much space as you would someone else, self-absorption is gone" (59).
"We need to be particularly on the lookout for the pride that likes to attach itself to spiritual activity. When we think we are growing wise in God's ways (getting lots of spiritual knowledge) and when we think we are becoming quite virtuous (doing or saying the right things), watch out! This is dangerous stuff" (67).
"If you will be frank and raw with your desires, I think you will please God more than if you undertake some great spiritual feat. Telling God plainly what you want--and letting yourself want it--is better than being martyred a hundred times. We hand God pleasure when we express our truest desires to him" (74).
"The hard truth is that God isn't most concerned with how to keep us alive. God is most concerned with how to help us die. Die to ourselves. Die to our delusions. Die so we can really live" (93).
"Many are deceived. They think that God's work (helping them die to their self-absorption) is causing their miserable distress. The truth is that their suffering is not a result of self-absorption being killed but rather a signal that bits of self-absorption are still very much alive. Live bodies feel pain, not corpses" (108).
"Do you want a test to know when you actually are humble? Here it is: whenever someone corrects your faults and whenever you see all the rank sickness in your heart--and you aren't surprised or offended by either--then you are humble. In that place, we don't have anything to prove, nothing to protest or protect...The correcting doesn't hurt because our identity and our well-being aren't tied up with being good, with being right" (118).
"We should treat [studying Scripture] the same as going to the corner market. We go, and we get only what we need on that trip. No more, no less" (124).
October 9, 2008
Winn takes Fenelon's works and makes them into letters to a friend. You would swear these were actually written to you because they hit deep to the soul offering heart-piercing,self-releasing, life-giving words. What a gift.
June 3, 2009
I felt like I was receiving letters from an old sage reading Let God. Winn and Fenelon's voice blend together into a very wise, comfortable tone that sounds like a good friend. I learned much from this book as it prodded at my selfishness and asked about my loyalties.
June 22, 2022
I must decrease
June 15, 2017
This is a collection of letters from a French spiritual guide who lived in the 17th century. I read Let God with a handful of people from my church, and we had a good discussion about several of the timeless themes Fenelon touches on in the book. It's wonderful to hear advice from a 350 year-old Christian and to consider how true it is that "there's nothing new under the sun." Still, without context for each letter (readers only get one side of the conversation) I felt like I couldn't get as much out of it as I would have liked.
October 22, 2025
This updates the language that Francois Fenelon used with colloquialisms and bands them into 8 differing conversations and then place the letters under these categories which is quite inventive. This is the third book, I have read with Fenelon's correspondence in spiritual direction and it is my second favourite. Another book I read only had a precious few of the correspondence and the other that I like has a lot more letters. I just like the language of the other. It isn't too hard to understand. I will re-read this a second time in a few months and will see if my view changes.
October 16, 2019
What a delightful book! I had to read it for a retreat I'm attending - otherwise I wouldn't have discovered it. Fenelon's insights hit me in a very personal way. At least 25% of my book is highlighted with 35 pages noted as "my favorite quotes". My favorite section is "how can I live in community?"
I'll be going back to this book often.
I'll be going back to this book often.
February 17, 2022
The hidden life
Fenelon captures the hidden part of my soul. The place where God is.
The Lord has said He will give the treasures of the dark places and the riches of the secret place.
Fenelon captures the hidden part of my soul. The place where God is.
The Lord has said He will give the treasures of the dark places and the riches of the secret place.
May 2, 2023
EXCELLENT - letters surrounding spiritual direction - read for Lent and just finished up. So glad - he is a new 'friend'.
October 30, 2008
My favorite of the 2 I have gotten to read of Winn's. I am in the middle of Holy Curiosity now!! (YEAH!) I love the personal style of the letters, but more importantly I love the relevance of words written centuries ago...relevant to a time and place and person so wholly different. Beautiful, convicting, and freeing all at the same time.
February 3, 2013
Very meaningful. Came into my life at a time when I am more aware of needing to trust and it has been eye- and heart-opening. A good balance of old and new, bringing wisdom from the past into today. I love this book.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews