All My Knotted-Up Life [Book Review]

[This article is part of a series of books we have reviewed over the years. Click the link to check out all the other books we’ve reviewed here.]

For those that do not know, Beth Moore I am a fan of hers. I respect her work, agree with her stance about the #MeToo movement, and even the politics about faith echo in my heart. She has created several Christian books, devotionals, prayer guides, and bible studies. I have fond memories of my mom reading some of her books, seeing women at college doing over her devotionals to improve their faith lives, and being challenged to grow stronger in my faith from sermons that quoted her.

All My Knotted-Up Life is her memoir of what has happened in her life the last 40+ years of her life that shaped how she came into ministry, her life, Christian publication, and honestly just a look behind the curtains and her life as she has become fodder for conservative news stations, Christian politicians, and public pastors in the last 5 years. This book though put things in a whole new perspective for me with what she went through. I knew there had been some kind of abuse from her father and never read in depth the articles she posted on public websites or magazines of her response when people were sharing about abuse.

I do not want to spoil the book for you, so I will not get into details of this, but for Christians that want to understand someone that has lived experience with mental health problems as well as a loved one with mental illness as they walk life together, this is your book to read. I think any pastor and Christian counselor would be moved by her memoir. As a counselor who previously was in full-time pastoral ministry and loved her Bible study guides but didn’t know her life, this hit my heart and I found myself driving in the car listening to the audiobook and grieving for her.

I talked more about this in my newsletter earlier this month, but the book also connected to my counseling work and the team I lead in that I need to make sure I set a culture for those in counseling positions or in ministry to not be setup for abuse within leadership. I’m a man that is driven, goal-oriented, and always looking to improve staff professionally and programmatically, so I need to be more mindful of the work I do with my team.

So this was my reminder for this next meeting to tell them they can come to me and I will listen, and if I need to fix things, I will listen to their concerns. Maybe this is a sign for you to also stop and evaluate how you have been. I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.