Saving Face - by Aimee Byrd (Paperback)

About the Book

Saving Face is a meditation on the divine face, and the meaning we get from the faces of others as we are trying to find our own. Aimee Byrd creatively weaves together stories, memories, journaling entries, and Scripture meditations seeking Christ's face in the faces of others that he has put in her life. She invites the church to do the same.

Book Synopsis

May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you...

We have received the blessing countless times, but what does it mean for the Lord to shine his face upon us in a time when many Christians are disillusioned with their faith, wrestling to reframe their relationship with God and with the church?

But another inner struggle often lurks unacknowledged, unconfronted--the struggle to rediscover one's own identity and relearn one's own story. Aimee Byrd finds this experience best described in the metaphor of finding one's face. Through this beautiful meditation, Byrd shows how the church has "been defaced" by its own spiritual abuses, by its loss of imagination and wonder, by empty words without actions.

The author of Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has often asked hard questions of the church. In Saving Face, she develops her reflections still further, daring to wonder: what if the crises in the church today are not because we don't have the right doctrine, but because we have lost sight of something much deeper?

What if we are spending all our time pointing fingers at those we consider "wrong," when we should be looking in a mirror instead? What if God has something to reveal to us there? Perhaps we should be seeking the presence of Christ in our own reflections just as we look for him in the faces of the others.

Creatively weaving together stories, memories, journal entries, and Scripture meditations on the divine face, Aimee invites the church to seek the face of Christ by recovering the values of beauty, contemplation, and deep relationship.

Review Quotes

Aimee Byrd is a treasure! In this age of spiritual disillusionment and abuse, she shows us how to fight through betrayal and hold on to Christ. But just as significantly, she gets vulnerable in this beautiful work, reminding us that we can never truly know God until we can face the truth about ourselves. And as we look Aimee full in the face, it's that much easier to see our own faces too--and long for the day when we all may see him, barefaced, unmasked, face-to-face.--Sheila Wray Gregoire, founder of BareMarriage.com, and coauthor of The Great Sex Rescue

In Aimee's beautiful and personal new book Saving Face, we're invited into the wrestling ring--Aimee wrestling with God and with a Savior she knows so personally and intimately, wrestling with her image in the mirror and the good self she projects out into the world, wrestling with many different ways of doing church and with challenging and often overlooked texts of Scripture, wrestling with every weary and worn out version of herself. But what we're honored to see is her deep longing: to know and be known by God, to know and be known authentically in her relationships, to live with faithfulness and integrity. This book is a profound gift that will invite you into this holy wrestling as well.--Chuck DeGroat, professor of pastoral care, executive director of the clinical counseling program, Western Theological Seminary, Michigan, author of When Narcissism Goes to Church

It takes a special kind of courage to face ourselves and see what truly is instead of what we've pretended to be or had to be or others believe us to be. Aimee Byrd has that courage, and Saving Face is the result of this deeply personal and spiritual work. One never gets the sense that this is a finished journey for her, but instead now, at midlife, she is truly making peace with the ongoing work of a storied life and the ways we are continually shaped and formed until we meet Christ face-to-face. A beautiful and tender book.--Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of The Understory, A Curious Faith, and more

No one has seen their face with innocence and wonder. We bear bias fueled by industries of shame, and we are told we need something other than what we see to be loved. Aimee uses words as a mirror to see ourselves as God sees us in the gaze of his delight. This brilliant, compelling, and transformative book is a vision of what it will be like to be fully captured by the face of God.--Dan B. Allender, PhD, professor of counseling psychology and founding president, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology

What a gift this book is to those who have been hurt in and by the church, those who long for a place to be seen and known.Out of her own painful story, Aimee Byrd invites us to join her in seeing what was always there: our true face. Beckoning the broken, welcoming the wounded, Byrd vulnerably models the good, hard work necessary for our true face to be restored in face-to-face communion with our Redeemer and with one another.--Chris Davis, senior pastor of Groveton Baptist Church, author of Bright Hope for Tomorrow: How Anticipating Jesus' Return Gives Strength for Today