'Simple Compassion: Devotions to Make a Difference in Your Neighborhood and Your World' by Keri Wyatt Kent - Book Review

Being that we are at the start of a New Year, it is always constructive to start it out right; the proverbial New Year’s Resolutions.  That involves developing new habits if you have old or bad ones!

Keri Wyatt Kent’s new book, ‘Simple Compassion: Devotions to Make a Difference in Your Neighborhood and Your World’ is the perfect way to begin!  Ms. Kent’s devotional is broken down into fifty-two week sections, and the objective is to live a more compassionate life.  Each weekly section provides application steps for the individual and for the community – if a small group decides to use this study.

Ms. Kent’s book is broken down further into four sections:

1.   Compassion Begins with You

2.   Compassion Grows in Community

3.   Compassion Extends Beyond Our Comfort Zone

4.   Compassion Offers God’s Love to the World

Each section expands further out - from the individual, to the family, to the community, and to the world.

Ms. Kent states the following on pages 8-9:

“In the last few years, I’ve become aware that my focus on spiritual formation had a purpose larger than myself, and in fact even larger than my individual relationship with Jesus.  As I got to know Jesus more intimately, I noticed how deeply concerned He seemed to be for the poor.  It began to dawn on me that following Him, really walking with Him, would require more than just an intellectual or emotional exercise.  It would demand action.”   

I hope you can tell from that small excerpt that Ms. Kent is very open and transparent in this book.  She shares a lot of her heart and her journey in reaching the point at which she is able to show so much compassion.

It is interesting in that our church, Oak Pointe Church in Novi MI, recently had a weekend series called ‘Living L.O.W.D.’ The L.O.W.D. acronyms stands for ‘Loving Others Without Discretion.’   Our pastor encouraged us to, among other things, to stop the judgmentalism that is rampant in the Christian church.  I admit that I have those tendencies, but am asking the Lord to help me out in that area.  A 'side effect' of loving others without discretion is that we will grow and learn to have more compassion for them.  This devotional is a perfect companion to those lessons.

Here are the other books written by Keri Wyatt Kent:

‘Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity’

‘Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul’

‘Listen: Finding God in the Story of Your Life’

‘Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life’

All of these titles reflect simplicity and living our lives closer to the Lord.  With all of the turmoil that this country has experienced over the last few years – economic collapse, etc…. – I believe the Lord wants us to press in even closer to Him – closer than ever before!  I thank Ms. Ellis for providing these tools that will help us do just that.


I am participating in a blog tour for 'Simple Compassion' this week with many other bloggers.  You can find a list of participating blogs here. 

This book was provided to me by Zondervan Publishing Company via the Blog Tour Spot for review purposes.  There was no financial remuneration, and the thoughts and opinions are mine only.