In my heart I want to write a longer review of Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber (Paraclete Press) than I have already written. We had, happily, a long list of pre-orders waiting for this January 2026 release simply from my description months ago. I suspect, actually, that most of you who pre-ordered it did so because you know of Steve’s great integrity and serious writing, his grace and insight, because you have been with him at conferences or workshops, at coffee shops or long walks on a college campus. You have had conversations of consequence. Or, you see his long, eloquent Facebook posts. Those who have read his Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior or Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, or the wonderful collection of short pieces called The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship & Work, know he is simply one of the most significant and fascinating Christian writers of our day.

As much as I want to walk with you through a close reading of Hints by offering a looooong review, talking about his big ideas and his tender stories, I’m going to refrain.

In this BookNotes I want to whet your appetite for a conversation about the book. Yep, we are hosting a free online webinar (what a clunky word, that) this coming Tuesday (February 3, 2026, at 8:00 EST.) Won’t you please register and join us?

Steve and I will chat about his years writing this new book, his travels, his cares and concerns, his hope for the book. He’ll most likely probe my heart as well, and, as long-time friends can, we’ll have a rather intimate conversation with many more joining in. You’ll be able to make comments or ask questions in the “chat” feature of Zoom (although, no worries, you won’t be on the screen.) We really hope you join us.

If you care about Hearts & Minds (and we are so very grateful that so many really do) Beth and I hope you will make time to join us as I interview a very important author as we talk about a very important book.

Here is the link you must use to pre-order. Once you sign up you will get a confirmation and you will get a link to use for the event.

Again, our evening with Steven Garber starts at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time this coming Tuesday, February 3, 2026.

You must register by clicking the above link.

Hints of Hope has a wonderful foreword by Makoto Fujimura, the abstract artist known world wide for his deep Christian faith and his work in the ancient Japanese style known as Nihonga. It is an excellent bit of writing itself, and including Mako in this lovely book indicates at least two things: first Steve is a fan and patron of the arts and he writes about artists of various sorts through the book. Mako writes how he feels honored and seen in Garber’s prose. Steve has long looked to artists — including rock stars and writers — for glimmers of insight and for their articulation of things many of us feel. In the book, Steve will describe novels and films that will thrill your creative heart. And he’ll quote Bob Dylan. More than once. And Hobbits. There are a lot of Hobbits.

Secondly, Makoto was born in America, raised in Japan, and attended college here in Pennsylvania. He was perfect to introduce the book. Steve is drawn to folks from all over the world and I do not think I know anyone who has so many international friends. Hints of Hope is jam-packed with amazing stories of faithful folks, serving God and loving their neighbors the best they can, in Eastern Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in South America. Although he tells of his and his wife’s families — in Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Kansas, Virginia — and many stories are set in middle America, many of the stories are not set in North America. The endorsements, too, are from around the world.

Josef Luptak (a cellist and curator of a music festival in Bratislava who Steve writes movingly about) insists that the book is “absolutely necessary” in these dark times. Cosma Gatere (himself the director of a consulting group in Nairobi) notes that the book has “inspiring anecdotes from places as diverse as Bethlehem and Beijing.” Tony Soh, the CEO of a national philanthropy centre in Singapore, says the book is so good it will be “a companion for life.” From South Korea to Birmingham, from Norway to Brazil to Nashville, Tennessee, the accolades have poured in from little-known but remarkably faithful women and men.

(If you want to see a really, really fine review by Steve’s friend singer-songwriter and Academy Award-winning record producer, Charlie Peacock, visit the Hearts & Minds facebook page where I have it posted. Or track down Charlie’s writing on Substack. It’s a grand review!)

Romel Regalado Bagares, who studied at the Sorbonne and the VU in Amsterdam and now is a human rights lawyer in the Philippines, calls the various chapters “luminous” and suggests that this book is about what it means to be human, how to navigate our own being implicated in the sorrows of the human condition. He writes,

“Garber’s stories of fraught travels, unexpected encounters, and unforgettable characters remind us that the weight of true love is the lightest in the heart, even as we bear the wounds and scars of human frailty.”

And that, my friends, is what this extraordinary book is about. Can we learn to love the world even as we know how wounded it is? Can we be at peace with that, living responsibly in a fallen world? Can we mourn the sadness and still seek some sort of substantial healing?

You’ve heard the theological phrase about the Kingdom of God, saying we live in the “now and not-yet”? That is what Hints of Hope is about. Living proximately, not expecting everything, hoping for love’s sake but facing our limitations and evil’s persistence. Can we care about the world, our culture, our institutions, our neighbors, enough to have them see the light of Christ without needing to think we can build the Kingdom here and now? This is no psycho-babble and it’s not cheap, but, I think, it is a key to true resilience.

And bearing the wounds of Christ is not just a Lenten notion, it is the heart of Christian humility and spiritual formation.

In a letter to readers, Dave Evans of the Stanford Life Design Lab writes:

Steven’s peerless staying power to never look away from the beauty and the brokenness has hammered out practical and true ways to engage the proximate and become more human in the bargain. While taking us deep into the full and unvarnished reality of this world, he will do so not harshly, for as he says, “it all turns on affection” and Steven is nothing if not affectionate. So, come along. Accept the invitation to plow this life deep, and unearth mature hope. You won’t be the same, and you won’t be disappointed.

“Plow this life deep and unearth mature hope.”

Please share this with anyone who might want to join us this Tuesday evening for an hour or so of gentle conversation and an overview of Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber (Paraclete Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

+++