Hope Has Its Reasons: The Search to Satisfy Our Deepest Longings

by Rebecca Manley Pippert

You long for love and happiness. But so often you are blocked from satisfying that longing. What are the barriers? Why are they so troublesome? How does spirituality play a role? Rebecca Manley Pippert examines these persistently human questions in this thoughtful and personal book. She invites you to join her on a journey exploring the region between faith and unbelief where your hopes and doubts mingle. Calling as expert guides such thinkers as Albert Camus and C. S. Lewis, she cites freely her own experiences and sets out the questions all face--questions about significance, meaning, love, life and truth, the search for encouragement and security. Pippert offers no canned formulas or saccharine cliches. In this revised and updated edition she squarely engages your uncertainty, disappointment, longing for fulfillment, and the reality of pain and suffering. Such realism rings in the stories she tells and in the ideas she explores. In doing so she leads you beyond the search for your own significance to the reasons you have for your hope of discovering God.

Genres: Christian, Christianity, Christian Living, Faith, Theology

197 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1988

About the author

Rebecca Manley Pippert regularly speaks on spiritual renewal, evangelism and character formation for church conferences, at schools and colleges and in pastoral training seminars. Becky has written several books on evangelism and Christian living, including the best-selling Out of the Saltshaker. and the LiveGrowKnow DVD curriculum. She and her husband Dick divide their time between Belfast, Northern Ireland and Michigan, USA.

Reviews

[Eric Chappell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like this are exactly why you should read footnotes. Discovered this gem hidden away in a bibliography, and what a gem it is.

Had not heard of Rebecca M. Pippert before. This book takes you on the journey of faith demonstrating that the cross and the empty tomb is the answer to the world's problem, namely Me. If you like Eugene Peterson, Keller, C.S. Lewis, Wright, you'll devour this. I'll be returning to this goldmine frequently.

[Teresa Forsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was in college and a new believer, I read Pippert’s book, Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World and it had an impact. So when I saw this book on a random list recently, I got it from the library. It had a slow start and the chapters were very long (so more difficult to keep my attention). But there were good truths and relevant real life applications. It’s an older book, so some of the information and examples were a little outdated.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reissued from a earlier edition, this book thoughtfully and intelligently unveils human nature’s attempts and complete failure to be good without God. Pippert also looks at religion’s failure, then explains well the deep import of the cross and the resurrection. This writer packs a wallop, caring for while also challenging the modern and post-modern mind.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Gave me a new perspective on many things I've been questioning and working through in my own faith life. Definitely recommend for someone who is wondering the longing for love and happiness is all some sort of sick joke...

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fresh and helpful book that explores the basic contours of the Christian faith. Rebecca Pippert explores the human condition by showing that the problem in the world lies in our own hearts (chapter 1). We're not okay (chapter 2), neither are we in charge (chapter 3). The problem is that we worship the wrong things (chapter 4). Only God can satisfy our deepest longings - the brokenness of our lives results from seeking that satisfaction in other things - relationships, wealth, sex, pleasure, status, etc. This idolatrous worship is sin (chapter 5) The answer to our woes is found in the gospel: the story of Jesus crucified and risen (chapters 6-7). When we respond to the gospel in honest confession and a life of genuine repentance, we are changed (chapter 8). The Christian life is an appropriation of the gospel, as live the cross in humble denial of self (chapter 9) and live the resurrection in joyful hope (chapter 10).

This is really an amazing book because it speaks with such poignancy to the human heart. Mrs. Pippert did not become a Christian until she was a young adult, and only after much struggle and wrestling with difficult philosophical questions. She addresses these questions carefully in this book, illustrating them with numerous conversations, anecdotes, and striking quotations from literature, philosophy, and psychology. Though I've been a Christian for many years, I found this book very moving and helpful.

I would especially recommend this as a book to give to your non-Christian friends. It is not a coercive book, but a thoughtful engagement with issues that most human beings face - loneliness, emptiness, suffering, despair - from a distinctly Christian perspective. This is a book that could be life-changing for you or someone you love.

[Christine Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe this book as a readable apologetics book for skeptics. She diagnoses the human condition, leading to the question, "What is the answer then?" And then she answers it with Christ, but from the perspective of the agnostic she was before becoming a Christian.

[Ann Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about the Christian life and its difficulties. Spells out the reasons for the hope that we have. Made lots of notes.

[Joni Weidenaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to re-read this book. I remember feeling a lot of respect for her logic.