My Top 10 Books of 2022

This is one of my favorite posts to write each December. Taking the time to reflect on my reading at the end of the year helps crystalize all the ways it changed me before I turn the page to a new year. Not all of these books were written in 2022, but these were the most impactful reads for me. Maybe you’ll find one or two that catches your eye this Christmas.

Happy reading, friends.

1. Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship by Jonathan Gibson

It is my prayer that the rhythms of fixed liturgy contained in this book, practiced over a month or a whole year, will instill in us habits of worship that will last a lifetime.

Between Covid, young children, and remodeling a house, these last few years have had an impact on my personal devotions. By and large, I’ve been faithful to spend time with the Lord, but for one of the first times in my adult life my devotions have been pretty ho-hum. Jonathan Gibson’s Be Thou My Vision has been a real help to me the last few months. While the variety of liturgy has kept things fresh, the biggest takeaway for me has been musing on the historic creeds and prayers of the Christian church. Remembering that I am part of a larger story, a great tradition, and a long line of saints has brought a substance I needed to help rekindle my daily worship.

2. The Power of Place: Choosing Stability in a Rootless Age by Daniel Grothe

A place to call home is foundational in the great quest of becoming. Or we could say it this way: place is to a person what womb is to a child.

Rebekah and I have talked a lot about putting down roots these last few years. Job changes and covid have made that difficult, but this year the Lord paved the way for us to move into a home and location we’ve wanted to be for a long time. The Power of Place was the most impactful book I read this year (technically, Gibson’s Be Thou My Vision is more a devotional).

Grothe provides a refreshing alternative to the alluring mobility of the modern world. He highlights the dangers of pursuing change for the sake of change. City hopping and new jobs can’t deliver on our deep need for connection and stability. Chronic rootlessness robs us from the stability that only comes from staying put for the long haul.

3. Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom by G. K. Beale

Our life consists of ups and downs. We are usually surprised by both, but we should not be so surprised, since the Bible testifies that such ups and downs are part of the divinely designed warp and woof of life.

Greg Beale is one of my favorite biblical scholars. His commentary on Revelation is near the top of my list on Bible commentaries. If you’ve never read Beale, this little book is a great place to start. Beale points out several ironic patterns that are weaved throughout the tapestry of Scripture. He expounds on redemptive irony, “whereby the faithful appear to be cursed, but as they persevere in faith, they are really in the midst of being blessed” (21).

Maybe the clearest occurrence of redemptive irony in Scripture is found in the Esther narrative. Mordecai survives. Haman is hanged. And on “the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them” (Esther 9:1).

4. The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self by Ian Morgan Cron

It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.

-Patrick Rothfuss

I am one of “those enneagram people.” I’ve been deeply helped in my own life and ministry through the wisdom found in exploring the various personalities of the nine types. Over the years, some of the criticism I’ve heard about the enneagram is that it inevitably leads to self absorption. While the enneagram has provided tremendous growth in self-awareness for me, it has also led to a greater curiosity of others and how God has designed them. It has made me more compassionate towards friends, family, and strangers. It sounds weird to say it like this, but the enneagram has probably made me a kinder person. I extend more grace as I understand the foundational desires and fears of fellow image bearers all around me.

Ian Cron’s books and Typology podcast are well worth your time if you are looking to take a deeper dive into the enneagram. Cron’s newest book, The Story of You, can help you identify where you might be living in a broken story or false narrative. But it won’t leave you there. If you approach this book prayerfully and keep the beauty of the gospel story in front of you, it has the potential to make a significant impact in your life. I know it did for me.

5. The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life by Marion Roach Smith

As you know from your own reading, every reader is reading for his or her own transformation.

I love a good memoir. Tracing the life and experiences of another human being can be a transforming experience for the reader. Marion Roach Smith has taught memoir writing for decades and is an incredible writer herself. She points out that the #1 thing baby boomers want to do is write a book—about themselves: “It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing a memoir—whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child—is the single greatest path to self-examination.”

Whether you want to write a memoir one day or not, I think this book is worth spending some time with—especially if you are a writer.

6. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur Brooks

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become, and the same is true of fame.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I don’t know if I can officially say I’ve entered midlife at thirty-six, but I can say I’ve resonated quite a bit recently with the message in Arthur Brooks new bestseller, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. In the book, Brooks coins a term called the striver’s curse. It refers to the fallout that often occurs to people that have spent the first half of their lives in the restless pursuit of more. When midlife hits, they “find their inevitable decline terrifying, their success increasingly unsatisfying, and their relationships lacking” (xiv).

I really don’t want that to be my story. Brooks’ vision of hope and beauty that can occur in the second half of life deeply encouraged me. If you feel midlife creeping up on you, this book will be a helpful guide.

7. Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do by Jordan Raynor

It is precisely because we are called to be excellent in all things that we can’t commit to being excellent at many things.

You’ve probably heard of Malcom Gladwell’s ten thousand-hour rule, which asserts “that the key to achieving true expertise in any skill is simply a matter of practicing, albeit in the correct way, for at least the thousand hours.” Jordan Raynor debunks Gladwell by pointing out that you can practice something for ten thousand hours and not be truly great at it if the particular skill is not in your wheel house. To achieve mastery, you need to run in your lane and the particular gifting the Lord has given you.

Too many people are trying to do too many things. To achieve real greatness in an area you have to find and focus on the work you were created to do.

8. The Enneagram Goes to Church: Wisdom for Leadership, Worship, and Congregational Life by Todd Wilson

A humble self-knowledge is a surer way to God than a search after deep learning.

Thomas a Kempis

This was enneagram book number two for me this year. I love Todd Wilson and his ministry at The Center for Pastor Theologians. His theological grounding and pastoral experience really bring The Enneagram Goes to Church to life.

If you are a ministry leader, I think you and your team could benefit from spending some time with the enneagram and this book from Wilson.

9. How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now by James K. A. Smith

The seasons of a life aren’t necessarily generated by my internal temperature. The season of a life with God aren’t a measure of my success or failure. . .
A season doesn’t define me.

I read just about everything James K. A. Smith writes. He stretches me intellectually and provides fresh insight on every topic he writes on. This is a book about time and our place in it. Smith reminds us that we don’t “drop into time.” We are the product— for good or bad—of all that has happened before us. And we are leaving a significant imprint on those that come after us.

This book will help you discern the times in which you live and how to live faithfully during your brief dash on earth.

10. All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr

All your life you wait, and then it finally comes, and are you ready?

I haven’t finished this book yet, so I feel like I’m cheating listing it here, but I’m loving it so far and intend to finish it before the new year. It’s my first novel by Anthony Doerr and I now understand what all the hype is about. It is beautifully written and moving.