Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers)

A guidebook for spirituality in an uncertain world. Though commonly understood as a place to be feared and avoided, the Dark Wood is the surest place to meet God, writes Dr. Eric Elnes (author of The Phoenix Affirmations and Asphalt Jesus). It is a place where you may feel uncertain, empty, lost, tempted, and alone. Yet these feelings - these gifts of the Dark Wood - can be your greatest assets on your journey. According to the ancients, you don't need to be a saint or spiritual master to experience profound awakening. You don't even have to be "above average." All you really need to be is struggling.

In clear and lucid prose that combines the heart of a mystic, the soul of a poet, and the mind of a biblical scholar, Dr. Eric Elnes demystifies the seven gifts bestowed in the Dark Wood: the gifts of uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck, getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and the gift of misfits.

This is a book for anyone who feels awkward in their search for God, who seeks to find holiness amid their holy mess, who prefers practicality to piety when it comes to finding their place in this world.