Surrendering Control Leads to the Best Possible Outcome.
Daily stressors and large trials can make us think we need to manage life’s circumstances as they unfold. But this quest for control comes with hidden pressures and leaves us yearning for freedom and peace. Isn’t there another way we can live? In Life Surrendered, Jessica Herberger takes you through the account of Good Friday, following Jesus from the garden to the grave. Combining memoir with biblical and historical accounts, she helps us see with clarity the freedom available to those willing to unclench their fists, lay down control, and truly die in a new way. For those grasping to control their lives, the events of Good Friday offer a detailed account of how, through surrender, we can live differently. Join Jessica and find the freedom that comes with releasing control and learn how your life can be filled with more peace, less stress, and greater faith.
Jessica Herberger is an author and Bible teacher who comes alive at the intersection of faith, history, and liturgy. She is the author of Break Bread Together and Life Surrendered (Leafwood 2022), and host of The Table—an online community gathered around the Word. She is also co-founder of the women’s ministry Seasons Northeast. Through her writing and speaking, Jessica encourages others to seek community, walk in obedience, and love others well. Jessica and her husband, Josh, live in upstate New York with their three kids where she can be found surrounded by books, music, and plenty of love.
“Jessica is relatable and wise, and Break Bread Together will spur you towards togetherness in a way that your heart desperately needs!”
—Maria Furlough, author of Confident Moms, Confident Daughters and Breaking the Fear Cycle
“In Life Surrendered, Jessica Herberger leads us along the way of suffering and draws us into Jesus’s last hours wrapped in humanity. We are asked to pause and consider how our own grief has shaped and is shaping our faith—an invitation Jessica, who has known deep grief, participates in alongside us. This moving account of Good Friday carries a gentle yet powerful message for the season of loss so many of us are living.”
—Deborah Beddoe, author of The Heart of Recovery: How Compassion and Community Offer Hope in the Wake of Addiction
“Jessica Herberger plumbs the depths of liberty and grace found in opening our clenched fists and yielding our lives fully to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. As she walks with us through the biblical account of Good Friday—the crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus—Jess wraps each moment in flesh-and-bone personality. We consider the fight found in Peter, the anguish of Judas, the care provided to Mary in the midst of the heartbreak. Each chapter offers a welcoming space for reflection and confession as we are invited to reconsider our perspective on what we value and what we hold dear.”
—Ronne Rock, long-road walker and author of One Woman Can Change the World
“Through her words and life, with an eye for God in the details, Jessica Herberger once again shows us that nothing was or is coincidental on the way to the cross. Life Surrendered beautifully weaves familiar scripture with fascinating historical details, insightful theology, and personal experience, taking readers on an open-handed journey through Good Friday to freedom found in Christ. The depths and ‘deaths’ of Good Friday examined in this book will change you.”
—Amy Morgan, author, speaker, and Cofounder of Seasons Northeast
“It’s tempting for Christians to skip over the agony of Christ’s passion, to race ahead to the gladness of Easter morning, yet our souls need to learn the lessons of the path to the cross. With deep faith and intimate knowledge of both life and death, Jessica Herberger is a trustworthy guide as we journey with Jesus. Her kind but firm words challenge and bless. I highly recommend Life Surrendered.”
—Richella J. Parham, author of Mythical Me and host of Friends in Formation
“In a time when the world seems obsessed with celebrity and influence, Jessica Herberger writes as a disciple. Her ability to climb inside scriptures as both learner and guide results in work that is at once authentic, wise, insightful, and challenging. While pop culture would have us believe surrender equates to defeat, Jessica demonstrates that surrender before Jesus brings freedom.”
—Adriel Booker, author of Grace Like Scarlett and host of Tethered and Our Scarlett Stories
“In the tradition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship and Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender, Jessica Herberger challenges Christians to embrace a biblical vision of Christian surrender. Grounded in the Passion narratives of the Gospel’s, Life Surrendered calls the reader to move from shallow believism to a radical expression of what it means to walk the Way of Jesus the way Jesus walked the Way. Life Surrendered is faithful to God’s Word, relevant to the difficult challenges people face in daily life, and rooted in a historic understanding of genuine relinquishment. Jessica Herberger has given us a gift, refocusing our eyes and hearts upon the freedom that comes to us by way of the Cross of Christ.”
—Terry Wardle, Founder, Healing Care Ministries, and author of many books, including From Broken to Beloved
ISBN 9781684264919
Pages 192
Dimensions (inches) 5.5 x 8.25
Weight (pounds) .5
