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Every once in a while, someone writes a book they had to live before they could write it.

I’ve known Shawn Saunders, CFRE, M.A. for a long time. I’ve known him as a colleague, and as a friend. And I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside him through some very difficult chapters of his life.

👉 That’s part of what makes his new book so meaningful.

This isn’t a book Shawn wrote from a safe distance. It comes from experience – from his own struggles, from walking alongside people battling addiction and other life-controlling issues, and from years spent thinking deeply about grace, responsibility, restoration, and what genuine freedom looks like.

At the heart of the book is a profoundly challenging idea: 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.

We may not all struggle with drugs or alcohol. But we can become every bit as dependent on achievement, approval, control, money, pleasure, productivity, or any number of other things we ask to give us what they ultimately cannot.

Shawn refuses the easy distinction between “addicts” and the rest of us. Instead, he asks a much more uncomfortable question: What am I depending on to give me life, love, meaning, and security?

👉 And then he points us toward something better.

Through 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 “𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐦𝐬” organized around rescue, renewal, reconciliation, and restoration, Shawn presents a deeply Christian vision of freedom – not simply changing our behavior, but becoming more fully who God created us to be.

I’m proud of Shawn for writing this book. But more than that, I’m proud of the courage it took to live much of what he writes about before putting it on the page.

If you’ve ever wrestled with brokenness in your own life, loved someone who has, or wondered what grace looks like when it gets beyond theology and into the messiness of real life, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 is worth your time.

And on another level, I’m really proud to see another member of the DickersonBakker team putting his ideas into the world through a book.

We talk a lot about thought leadership, but real thought leadership means having something worth saying – and being willing to put your name behind it. Shawn has done that here.

Congratulations, Shawn. I’m grateful to call you my friend, proud to have you on our team, and excited to see where this book takes you.