Made for More

Hope that hasn't looked despair in the eye isn't hope. It's wishful thinking.

Hope is one of Christianity’s most distinctive gifts to the world. But it is easy to confuse with something far cheaper—with optimism, with wishful thinking, with the insistence that things will work out if we just stay positive. Will Willimon is not interested in that kind of hope.

Made for More: Christ’s Hope for Us is a theologically serious, pastorally honest exploration of what Christian hope actually is—and why it matters more right now than at almost any point in living memory. Drawing on key Scripture passages—Lamentations, Jeremiah 29, Psalm 130, Luke’s resurrection account, Revelation—Willimon shows how Christian hope confronts despair honestly before pointing toward God’s surprising future. He does not bypass suicide, depression, anxiety, or the sense of futility that has settled over contemporary American life. He earns the right to speak about hope by taking hopelessness seriously first.

Written with the characteristic clarity, pastoral insight, and wit that have made Willimon one of the most trusted voices in American Protestant preaching and theology, this book invites educated lay readers and pastors alike into a deeper understanding of hope as a way of life—grounded in who God is and what God does rather than in circumstances, outcomes, or mood.