Trekking Toward Tenacity. Chris Morris. 2024. 187 pages. [Source: Library] [parenting, mental health] [2 stars]
First sentence from introduction: If you've picked up this book, it's likely because either the phrase "stronger mental health" or the word "tenacity" caught your eye, and you thought that maybe you could use a bit more of one or the other in your family.
First sentence from chapter one: Oh Dear, He Knows Everything. When we read that God has examined our hearts and knows everything, this might induce a sense of dread. We could be filled with fear.
Trekking Toward Tenacity uses Psalm 139 to walk parents [presumably believers] through how to better nurture the mental health and wellbeing of their families. It has activities for how to teach and/or illustrate the concepts for children of varying age ranges. The book mentions that it can be a true struggle to raise up children within the Christian faith and that it is hard to make time to teach the basics, to build upon a foundation that will allow for tenacity.
Chapter titles include:
- God Knows Us Intimately and Still Wants to Be Around Us
- God Is Paying Attention to Us
- God Sees Us
- God Knows Our Words
- God Is All Around and Within Us
- We Must Develop a Ritual of Gratitude
- We Cannot Escape God
- Darkness is Light to God
- God Knows Our Broken Parts and Still Loves Us
- We are Extraordinary
- God Knows All Our Days
- We Can Be Emotional
- We Can Pray Bravely
The book uses the MESSAGE translation of the Bible. I would say each chapter uses a verse or two of Psalm 139 as a jumping off place. It does not stay focused in or zoomed in on the Bible for long. It is a personal book with the author sharing his own struggles and experiences....along with his own viewpoints.
I wanted to really LOVE this one so that I could recommend it wholeheartedly and without reservation to others. I know it is a genuine struggle for parents.
However, I found the theology to be problematic. In some chapters it is a tad problematic--negligible. In other chapters it is glaringly problematic. In some chapters, the theology is just so incredibly UNbiblical. A few chapters are good to go. Because it is a bit all over the place, it would require a good amount of discernment on the part of the reader. Some parents may be able to pick and choose--to take the good and dismiss the bad, to still find value in the book.
I love how the first chapter shows that God LOVES us and is FOR US no matter our mental health. We can be a total mess, and God still loves us and values us. Your mess can't scare away God. In the second chapter, he writes, "No matter what thoughts occur in our heads, the value God places on our lives is unchanging."
I truly appreciated how he stresses that mental health conditions are NOT sin and that they don't make us unlovable. They don't define our relationship with God. Christian maturity does not guarantee mental health conditions lessen, improve, or go away. We are not promised healing simply because our faith is in Christ. He writes, "We must communicate to our kids at every age that God isn't disappointed in them because of a potential mental health condition, God isn't ashamed of us when we battle these circumstances, and God isn't going anywhere."
I appreciated how he points out that we can live as practical atheists when we live as if God is not with us, not present, not seeing or hearing. We live as if there is no God. But there IS a God who is always there.
What I found disturbing or alarming is his throwing God's sovereignty completely out the window. He just out and out rejects God's governance of the universe, his foreknowledge and knowledge, his ordained plan. Morris' God simply is just waiting to see how it all plays out in the end since there are billions, trillions, infinite freewill choices that could change everything happening every second of every day. God has no control over the future or working things out for our good simply because he's tied his own hands up. He could have more of a say in the universe, but, he's choosing not to because he's bound--tied down--by free will of humanity.
This doctrine is not a "little" doctrine. It is not inconsequential or insignificant. You would have to throw out the God of the Bible as revealed in Genesis through Revelation. Hardly any book of the Bible is silent on God's sovereignty. It is everywhere. And it is tied so closely with all of God's other attributes that how could you remove his sovereignty without damaging or collapsing the rest. God is God is God is God.
But some of what he had to say was weird/odd or just confusing....
"God would rather break up the Trinity than walk away from us."
What does that even mean??????
Problematic quotes:
If we decide to allow Jesus to be the king of our lives and accept his sacrifice as our Savior, then we are gifted the righteousness of Jesus.
Taking time to praise God for ourselves is a worthy exercise for two reasons. First, we develop a fresh gratitude for the goodness of God that's evident in our lives every single day, almost hidden in plain sight. Second, we gain a healthy appreciation of ourselves. Instead of focusing on all the things we don't do perfectly, we can see the things that work well, the things we perform well, and the things that are perfect.
We are worth everything to him. We don't spend enough of our lives thinking about ourselves as God's masterpiece, and we don't coach our kids to do that either...If we can learn to live as God's masterpieces it will dramatically affect the way we view ourselves...we will sotp viewing ourselves as unfinished and will recognize that God knew what he was doing when he created us. We will no longer denigrate ourselves.
God shows us off to the angels and whoever else will listen because he's that proud of us.
If God were the type of God who interfered with free will, then we would have an entirely different world altogether. We would be automatons instead of human beings, the cross of Christ would have been unnecessary, and we would not know even the simple joys of choosing what outfit to wear today. There is no middle ground here. Either God honors free will or he doesn't, and both have consequences.
Have you taken for granted the idea that God dwells in eternity and knows everything? How does the information in this chapter change your perspective on God?
God has to learn what's in our hearts through what we do, and he sits back and allows our free will to lead the way.
For those unfamiliar with Psalm 139, here it is in full:
Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, Lord, You know it all.
You have encircled me behind and in front,
And placed Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot comprehend it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
For You created my innermost parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my formless substance;
And in Your book were written
All the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
If only You would put the wicked to death, God;
Leave me, you men of bloodshed.
For they speak against You wickedly,
And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
© Becky Laney of
Operation Actually Read Bible
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