The Tribune

By The Episcopal News Service

“I do not think Jesus taught us to focus on what will happen after we die,” says Anglican Bishop Jake Owensby. “I believe that Jesus came to teach us how to live and love in this life. Living a life of compassion and seeking the well-being of our neighbour gives us a foretaste of what life after this life will be.”

In “A Resurrection Shaped Life: Dying and Rising on Planet Earth”, Bishop Owensby, fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana, leads readers through a re-examination of the biblical concept of resurrection and explains how people can begin to experience resurrection in our ordinary life on earth through honest reflection, repentance, and forgiveness to a new life of self-acceptance.

The book explains how we can begin to experience resurrection by:

• Growing beyond our past.

• Examining the meaning of suffering.

• Recovering from shame and blame.

• Mending loss and sorrow.

• Pursuing forgiveness, passion, and justice.

“It made me remember what kind of human I long to be—and why I can’t quit Jesus. Read ‘A Resurrection Shaped Life’ and fall in love again with God—and with hope,” said Diana Butler Bass, author of “Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks”, in her review of the book.

Dr Owensby is the author of four books. He is a graduate of the School of Theology at Sewanee, and was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in the Diocese of Florida. He has three adult children and lives in Alexandria, Louisiana with his wife, Joy, and rescue pup, Gracie. He blogs about looking for God in messy places at JakeOwensby.com.