The Whole Life: Finding God’s Rhythm for Your Spirit, Soul and Body

In his instructive book, Stine (Hearing from God), founding pastor of Metro Church in Washington, D.C., lays out his methods for creating a life of fulfillment through caring for spirit, soul, and body. After struggling with stress and being diagnosed with Graves’ disease, Stine realized as he was reading a passage in Thessalonians that he was caring for his body the wrong way. “I pray that God would give you a Whole Life rhythm in your spirit, soul, and body,” he writes. He breaks down these three main areas into nine developmental pillars that, he suggests, form the basis of a healthy life. Pragmatically, he makes a “whole life wheel” of these nine segments—prayer, Bible reading, and dream; mind, will, and emotions; nutrition, fitness, and rest—and asks readers to plot their commitment to each on a chart. The resulting misshapen circle then allows readers to track what parts of their lives need most work as they try to round out the edges of their whole life plan. Each chapter dives into practical instructions, including how to pray, explore the Bible regularly, resolve guilt, remove unsanctified beliefs, make spiritually guided decisions, and design a healthy lifestyle with aerobic exercise as the core focus. Though Stine’s health advice lacks the depth and authority of the theological sections, his whole life process will provide Christian readers with a systematic approach for integrating spiritual and physical well-being. (Jan.)