Review by Michael Langer
I love everything Dr. DeGroat writes. My introduction to his work came through reading, Leaving Egypt: Finding God in Wilderness Places, which was a balm to my soul. His next book, The Toughest People to Love, was transformative in my approach to pastoral ministry.
In Wholeheartedness: busyness, exhaustion, and healing the divided self, DeGroat (a pastor and licensed therapist) leads the reader through the counterintuitive assertion that the remedy for our frenetic lives is not less work and more rest but working to reintegrate ourselves to the people our creator intended.
He sets the hook with this,
“We’ve worked so hard to gain approval and esteem that we’re crushed under the heavy burdens of fear, shame, and self-worth. What [Brene] Brown and others are finding is that we’ve traded our longing to belong for the quick fix of fitting in. We’ve traded wholeness for perfectionism.”
DeGroat applies his experience as a pastor and therapist to encourage the reader to find another path through modernity’s increasing speed. All of us are facing an unending barrage of information and tasks related to every aspect of our lives: spiritual, emotional, relational, vocational, ideological, cultural, and evangelical (missional). Social media has added additional layers and intensity by presenting information that leaves us with growing feelings of fear, insecurity, or the belief that we are missing out. Throughout the book, DeGroat asks the reader to confront their Inner Critic, that voice in each of us that tells us our best isn’t good enough. On top of that, everyone we come in contact with is dealing with their own Inner Critic, and those interactions also take a toll on us.
The book reminds us of the implications arising from trying not just to impress others but ultimately to impress God. Of course, we all understand the theological reality that we cannot impress God, yet we try.
Ultimately, DeGroat contends, we must deal with the “fractured-ness” of our inner being. The part of us that Christ came to redeem yet continues to live in a world that is pulling us apart.
Wholeheartedness: busyness, exhaustion, and healing the divided self is part of the core curriculum of Faithful Presence for a reason. If we are to live in a posture of faithful presence in the midst of the modern, post-Christian, technology-focused world in which we live, we need to do so as whole people. This is why Faithful Presence places a high premium on Whole-Life Discipleship for the whole of life. Without wholeheartedness, our participation in the public square will constantly be undermined by our Inner Critic, and we will find ourselves unable to sustain the faithful presence to which Christ has called us.
The book includes a fantastic study guide that makes applying DeGroat’s insights much more fruitful.