"The trait that best typifies the students who break down in my office is their great unhappiness. They are believers. Of this I am sure. Certainly they are more diligent believers than I am, to judge from all the good things they are constantly doing. But they are miserable, every one of them. And, though they usually manage to get back on track . . . I know that, in their spiritual work lives, they have not changed much either. And it breaks my heart." Patty Kirk knows what it's like to try to impress God. It's like beating the air and bruising your soul. In The Easy Burden of Pleasing God she reminds us, through stories and reflections and careful meditation on the Scriptures, that despite what we may have heard or told ourselves, the yoke we take on as we follow Jesus is easy, and the burden of a loving God is light. To all of us who pursue perfection in vain and ache with the defeat that follows, The Easy Burden of Pleasing God will be truly good news.
