"All your wounds can become wellsprings." - K.J. Ramsey, The Book of Common Courage

The Book of Common Courage is a collection of scripture, poetry, images, and prose in three parts - Blessed, Broken, and Given - that takes the reader piece by word by word through Psalm 23.

My understanding is that this book is a born out of reflection on Ramsey's last book, The Lord is My Courage, which dealt with recovering from church harm and rediscovering the Lord as our Good Shepherd. It is also centered around Psalm 23 and rooted in Ramsey's own life experiences and knowledge as a professional counselor. I imagine this is a wonderful companion to that book (which I haven't had the opportunity to read yet).

There are many beautiful images and words within these pages, but I found I couldn't quite connect with them as much as I had hoped. I did enjoy the "invitation," the introduction, and was almost brought to tears there which leads me to believe that I might connect more with her other works more deeply. Perhaps The Book of Common Courage is a one to take in slowly as you move through some of the feelings, challenges, and small moments that are discussed in Ramsey's work - religious trauma, mental health, long suffering, illness and unanswered prayers in relationship to Jesus, our Good Shepherd - or to give as a gift to someone who going through loss, difficult life transitions, illness, or struggling with faith or their faith community.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson/Zondervan and NetGalley for an advanced copy to review. All opinions are my own.

DNF: The photos were the best part of the book. I found the written parts oddly formatted and had trouble getting past the structure of the writings.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC. I feel like seeing the final version of this book will be utterly breathtaking but the formatting on this edition did make it a little hard to read.

On the other hand, KJ's writing is poetic and prophetic - a real balm for bruised souls. I also loved the pairings of KJ's photography with her writing -the two work so well together.

I have long loved Ramsey's writing and was delighted to she had written another book. This is a beautiful collection of prayers, poems and liturgy that walk through Psalm 23. The language felt like my own and I deeply connected with it. The layout is beautiful, the changing colours and textures demarcate the end of one passage and the start of another well. The photography is a beautiful addition to it and I found myself meditating over these as much as the words.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Gift, for the advance reading copy.

I would say this book is for those who are well thorough with the Bible.

The book has amazing content with colourful pictures and heartfelt writing. I really love the beautiful cover!

The book does a really good job on bringing out what we can do during our worst moments, how to find the courage when we struggle during these moments. A good one I say.