What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience

by Tish Harrison Warren

How do we cultivate faith that endures? From the award-winning author and former New York Times writer comes a fresh vision for navigating burnout and weariness through ancient Christian practices—guiding us toward lives of resilience, renewal, and flourishing.

Early Christians often grappled with a reality we rarely talk about in contemporary life: that God seems to abandon the soul at times, leaving us feeling as if we are alone and left to our own resources. These are times of futility, when work and relationships feel hard, when prayer feels unsatisfying, and we question if our efforts are amounting to anything.

For centuries, Tish Harrison Warren notes, times of “aridity” were seen as necessary—prerequisites for growth and maturity. Yet in our culture fixated on speed and optimization, we risk losing this deeper sense of the human journey and the resilience that comes with it.

Writing for a moment when two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with their work and a sense of languishing is widespread, Warren draws from her own season of exhaustion and also from the rich well of Christian tradition--particularly the earliest Christian monks--to discover the habits and mindsets that anchor us through doubt, difficulty, and spiritual dryness. She offers hope to those who feel like life is overwhelming, taxing, or disorienting.

What Grows in Weary Lands speaks to anyone longing for a life of depth in a distracted age. Warren helps us see that nothing is wasted—that, even in desert seasons, something good is growing, rooted in grace and reaching toward glory.

192 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 12, 2026

About the author

Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. After eight years with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Vanderbilt and The University of Texas at Austin, she now serves as co-associate rector at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She writes regularly for The Well, CT Women (formerly her.meneutics), and Christianity Today. Her work has also appeared in Comment Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, Art House America, and elsewhere. She and her husband Jonathan have two young daughters.

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful, pastoral book from Tish Harrison Warren. This is a book about resilience through burnout, and the spiritual lethargy that has been called acedia. She points out that burnout often comes from doing things we love, and she helpfully identifies the spiritual "slump" we feel when we are not on the "mountaintop," which she calls "aridity."

In this book, she says nothing new, and I think the author would agree with that. She looks to the Desert Fathers and Mothers to teach us the disciplines of stability and patience. It continues from other books on the "domestic monastery" idea.

One of the most eye-opening moments was when she explained that the dark night of the soul isn't just "bad things in life," but a necessary step after the "honeymoon" of faith where the training wheels come off, and we learn to love God for God, rather than for the blessings God gives. She draws a connection to Psalm 131, where a weaned child loves the mother more for who she is than what she can give.

The subchapter organization leans into the author's strength in essay writing. The 2- to 4-page mini-chapters aren't sound bytes for short attention spans, but interlocking thought-nuggets building together to a chapter.

**received early access via NetGalley from the publisher**

[Keith Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic follow up to prayer in the night. Writing out of her own experience of being worn, she brings a modern perspective to the Desert Fathers and mother’s writings on reliance and perseverance. Definitely encouraging, thoughtfully written and easy to understand.