At times, I’ve wondered if “Gregory” is my real name.
When I read in the Book of Revelation that “the victor” would be “given a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it,” I really wanted to win that competition. But I’ve found out that Gregory means “watchful” or “alert,” which I’ve taken to mean “watchful about culture” and “alert to what others might not notice.”
I suppose this watchfulness is the golden thread that is stitched through my work: no matter how many contrary messages we might hear in culture, how could we imagine the richest, most faithful life we might lead? How does our culture encourage or discourage the best we are meant to be? What virtues are being neglected? What influence does our speech have on a few of our soul-essentials?
Reframing the Soul
When you frame your life, what’s in the picture?
We don’t just remember the past. We remember it as we have framed it. Jesus calls us to reframe life—grace instead of law, love instead of retaliation—demonstrating that our faith-work is framework. In this book, readers will be awakened to the power of the words they choose.
As we begin to change our word choices, we become empowered to reframe our story according to the truth of our lives and the wisdom of the gospel. New circumstances—a divorce, a new job, an illness, or a revelation about the past—often drive us to reframe. In these times of crisis or change, we realize that the words and labels we have previously accepted are unsatisfying. Reframing the Soul guides readers through remembering the past with gratitude, anticipating the future with hope, dwelling within themselves with peace, and relating to others in love.
Editorial Reviews
“With remarkable clarity, thoughtfulness, wisdom, and humor, Gregory Spencer has taken this difficult to understand subject and shown how deeply and broadly it reaches into every aspect of our lives. Masterfully weaving together real-life stories of tragedy and hope, a lifetime of learning about communication, and the role that faith plays in helping us see beyond our limited perspectives, Reframing the Soul is the best introduction I’ve read to both why and how we should reframe as an essential daily practice.”
—Don Waisanen, PhD, associate professor of communication, Baruch College
“Reality, a friend of mine once said, is what you run into when you’re wrong. Reframing the Soul is a wonderful guide to navigating reality with grace and truth. It is honest, hopeful, literate and faith-filled. His framework for daily life is brilliant!”
—John Ortberg, senior pastor of Menlo Church and author of I'd Like You More If You Were More Like Me
“We live and die in stories. They tell us who we are, what to believe, and what to do. Gregory Spencer’s Reframing the Soul helps us see that even though some of our stories are toxic, they can be recast in ways that are healthier and still true. He uses stories from his own life, along with many stories from others, to help us become better tellers of our own stories.”
—Daniel Taylor, author of Death Comes for the Deconstructionist and Do We Not Bleed?
Awakening the Quieter Virtues
Contentment is the strength hope gives us to pursue the unsatisfied life in a satisfying way.
Big, colorful virtues like courage and decisiveness in crisis easily get our attention. But sometimes it’s those everyday values that shape us much more profoundly. Lost in our noisy, flashy, gaudy world are the quiet virtues that work behind the scenes–molding our character, guiding our actions, enriching our lives. Greg Spencer unfolds the beauty and nature of each, showing us how to take notice of discernment, innocence, generosity, authenticity and more. In this book you’ll discover how far from being dull these quieter virtues actually are. Though often hidden, they play a formative role in who we become and what we do.
The Welkening
When all good purpose is united, the sound peals bright and clear.
Lizbeth, Bennu, Len and Angie are misfits, and they know it. They are often overlooked and ostracized for being overweight, short, airheaded, or wearing coke-bottle glasses. When bullies inflict a wound to Len’s head, the four friends find themselves suddenly thrust into an alternative dimension — the realm of Welken, an idyllic kingdom under attack by Morphane the Soul Swallower. The noble defender Piers urges the four to aid his beleaguered land. But their insecurities hold them back until several mysterious adventures reveal that the weaknesses so disdained in their own world are weapons of great power in Welken. Victory is far from certain, however, as the enemy resorts to shape-shifting and deception, finally storming the Welkeners with an army of slaves. Unless the misfits find the courage to wield their weapons and turn the battle, Welken will fall into the death grip of Morphane.
Guardian of the Veil
Only those whose hearts have been broken can remember anything before the age of four. This is what he remembers.
What if the fabric of our world were stretching or tearing…or getting thinner…and we could step through that veil into another world?
It’s been a month since the Misfits — four friends who like to commiserate — were catapulted out of their adventures in the land of Welken and back into an ordinary summer in the small town of Skinner, Oregon.
Mysterious reminders of those exciting days begin popping up everywhere. A mountain lion. A sailboat. A children’s story. Could Lizbeth, Bennu, Len, and Angie be needed, once again, in Welken? If so, for what purpose?
And things seem different this time. Are little signs of Welken rippling through Skinner? Do the multiplying wonders mean that two worlds are about to collide? Or has Welken been within the Misfits’ reach all along, but they just hadn’t seen it?
