Occasionally a book comes along that makes me yearn for my days of owning and managing a Christian retail bookstore in Bloomington, IN, circa 1983-1996. Such is the case with Timothy Jones’ new release Fully Beloved: Meeting God in Our Heartaches and Our Hopes( Thomas Nelson, March 2026). It’ s a book that has captivated my heart, and led me to interview him about it.
Jones is a pastor and author known for helping people uncover greater warmth and depth in their relationship with God. His writing, Sandra McCracken wrote,“ names our loneliness and lifelong quest for belonging,” while“ with honesty and relatability he invites us to encounter the God of divine love.” A former editor at Christianity Today, Tim has written a number of other books including The Art of Prayer: A Simple Guide to Conversation with God and Awake My Soul: Practical Spirituality for Busy People. Fully Beloved explores God’ s triune love set amid our human, everyday brokenness.
CRAtoday: You have served for many years in both a pastoral role and as a writer of Christian books. How do you see the two connected? How does your pastoral work shape your writing, and how does your writing illuminate your pastoral work?
Timothy Jones: More than any book I’ ve done, what I write in Fully Beloved comes from my own grieving and learning. It grows out of my walking prayerfully with people as they experience setbacks, face losses or make discoveries. I think my decades walking with people in their joy and suffering worked down into me a sensitivity I might not otherwise have. And much of what appears in the book has been shared in retreat or adult Sunday school class settings, so it got some“ field testing.” As I’ ve been doing podcast and radio interviews for the book, interviewers have commented on a calming voice that seems able to connect with listeners and potential readers. I’ ve tried to let that reassuring voice in person translate into my written voice.
CRAtoday: The new book grapples with the theological doctrine of the Trinity, but does so in a beautifully accessible— not at all stuffy!— way as you ultimately suggest that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit love us with a fierce love. What prompted you to write this book, at this time?
Jones: We live in a cultural moment plagued by epic, even epidemic loneliness. We may feel wearied from fractured relationships and polarizing conversations. And growing up, maybe we got the message that we need to earn God’ s
love and affection. If we don’ t like ourselves, we search for connection and validation in ways that may not be healthy. I think of our counting social media likes, chasing heart emojis, worrying about status. Amid all that we can forget how, at its core, living means genuine relating.
At the same time, we discover that human tenderness alone cannot satisfy our deepest hungers. In the distance and disconnection common in our lonely times, lots of us are searching for a sturdier, more lasting love. We look for a communion that feeds the soul, a deeper experience of affection that seems more reliable, sturdy— an abundant, stubborn love. The word fierce for such love seemed to me to fit better than words like modest or mild!
From before time, we see that God lives in relating delight: Father, Son, Holy Spirit in communion and conversation. The Trinity shows that God has more relatability up His sleeve than maybe we thought. The Father, Son and Spirit appear as a community of love that is not distant or standoffish but fully committed to the world— and to us. So it’ s not an antiquated, dusty doctrine. It doesn’ t complicate our experience of God. It warms it. I don’ t find it confusing but life changing.
To know we are God’ s beloved changes everything in our ordinary, sometimes broken lives
To know we are God’ s beloved, even to glimpse it, changes everything in our ordinary, sometimes broken lives.
CRAtoday: As you reflect back on your years as a follower of Christ, how have you seen God meet you in the midst of your heartaches? What counsel do you have for readers and booksellers who may be in that place even now, as they read this article?
Timothy Jones
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