I Want to Trust You, but I Don’t: Moving Forward When You’re Skeptical of Others, Afraid of What God Will Allow, and Doubtful of Your Own Discernment

Bestseller TerKeurst (It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way) issues a gentle invitation for Christians to swap out blind trust for one based in intuition and faith. After her marriage collapsed, the author became paralyzed by a sense of distrust in her friends (some of whom abandoned her), herself, and most troublingly God, who’d failed to intervene while allowing “the people who hurt me... to carry on.” Tracing her recovery, she describes learning to discern between emotional triggers and real signs of untrustworthiness, recognize red flags, and repair severed relationships by watching for genuine change in the other person’s actions. Perhaps most challenging was restoring her faith, which she eventually did by letting go of expectations for God to ease her suffering and instead appreciating life’s smallest moments, from biting into a ripe peach to listening to music “that calms my mind and makes me exhale.” Despite flimsy bits of pop psychology borrowed from her therapist, the author’s central idea—that trust is rooted in faith as well as personal discernment—is realistic and flexible, making room for readers’ anxieties (which should be shared with God) and limitations (“What my mind can’t understand, my heart tends to distrust”). It’s a boon for wounded believers looking to get back on their feet. (Oct.)