Beautiful People Don't Just Happen - by Scott Sauls (Paperback)

About the Book

Regret, hurt, and fear are familiar to us all. Often we feel trapped in their grip, but it doesn't have to be that way. Scott Sauls is our empathetic guide to the freedom that is found in God--freedom that unburdens us from regret, hurt, and fear and opens the door to a new life of relief, contentment, and hope.

Book Synopsis

Find the freedom from regret, hurt, and fear that God wants for you while discovering joy, relief, and hope as you become the beautiful human he created you to be.

We all carry regret, hurt, and fear. These are burdens that weigh us down and make us feel trapped.

In twenty-five years of pastoral ministry, Scott Sauls has come alongside countless individuals and communities through weary seasons and circumstances. From his own seasons of regret, hurt, and fear--including battles with anxiety and depression--he knows what it's like to be unfinished and on the mend under Jesus' merciful, mighty healing hand.

Beautiful People Don't Just Happen reads like a field guide that can help you:

• Find hope in how God is drawn toward you, not appalled by you, in your sin and sorrow.
• Practice emotional health with joy, gratitude, and lament.
• Quiet shaming, wearying thoughts with God's divine counter-voice.
• Discover how the defining feeling of faith is not strength but dependent weakness.
• Learn what the Bible calls "the secret of being content" in every circumstance.

Dare to embrace the contentment, hope, and fullness God wants for you--offered to all who will receive it.

Review Quotes

'Emotionally honest, confessional, and full of grace . . . this book reads like a rope ladder of mercy, lifting us out of the pit of suffering and into the sunlight of God's wisdom. Scott makes space for our brokenness and gives testimony to the grace that delivers us out of the low places of our shame and sorrow, up onto the high ground of God's strength.'--Sandra McCracken, singer-songwriter and recording artist

'Every day in our counseling offices, we see confirmation that owning our mess opens the door to knowing and experiencing gospel hope. . . . Beautiful People Don't Just Happen provides meaningful help in addressing the depression, anxiety, and mental-health crises that have enveloped our culture. God makes beauty out of our regret, hurt, and fear. We are grateful for a seasoned, graceful, and humble guide like Scott Sauls to show us how.'--Sissy Goff, therapist and author of Raising Worry-Free Girls, and David Thomas, therapist and author of Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys

'For those whose trauma and pain seems large or small: read this book and be prepared for God to draw forth your beauty, emerging as it will beyond your imagination and from the places you would least expect.'--Curt Thompson MD, author, The Soul of Desire and The Soul of Shame

'I read everything I can find by Scott Sauls, and I can't help but think this might be his best book yet. Too many of us feel we have to hide behind an image of confidence and stability and put-togetherness. This honest, vulnerable, hopeful book shows us another way, the way of Christ, and does so with clarity, candor, and kindness. You will be glad you read it, and you'll want to read it again.'--Russell Moore

'My friend Scott Sauls knows a lot about pastoring people up and out of the miry pit. . . . Beautiful People Don't Just Happen is an extremely tender yet powerfully thoughtful volume that will help you embrace God through every affliction. For what Scott has written here is a definitive guide that will help every sufferer find their way back to hope, wholeness, and spiritual health. I give this remarkable book a double thumbs-up!'--Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center

'Scott gently lifts our weary heads to behold our Father's grace and the glorious hope that we have in Christ to show us that our suffering is not in vain. This is a book that provides gospel-saturated meaning to our suffering, and it is a book that every Christian should read and read again.'--Bryan Loritts, teaching pastor, The Summit Church

'Scott Sauls pens hallowed words. Though we are pelleted by adversity, loss, and pain, he helps us become more pliable to Christ and the Spirit that we may walk in cadence with our creator. This book overflows with wisdom, everyday tactics, and 'aha' moments to help you live the beautiful life you're meant for. Don't miss this stunning gift to all of us.'--Margaret Feinberg, author, More Power to You

'This deeply pastoral book . . . shows how suffering creates beauty in us just as long pressure turns ordinary material into diamonds. Christians are called neither to stoicism nor despair before adversity but to face it as Christ did, going through death to resurrection. A highly accessible Christian theology of suffering.'--Tim Keller, pastor emeritus, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

'This is the book we need to understand that our weariness is not a burden to Jesus, the church, or our own growth as believers. Sauls invites us to embrace struggle as part of the human experience and to take heart in the fact that 'when we are weak, he is strong.''--Rachel Joy Welcher, author, Talking Back to Purity Culture; editor, Lexham Press and Fathom Magazine

'This wonderful, hope-infused book reminds us how God takes hard and ugly experiences and uses them to craft tenderhearted beautiful people. You shouldn't read this book just once; pull it out every couple of years to remind yourself that because of God's grace, hurt and fear don't win; beauty does.'--Paul David Tripp, author, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional and Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense