Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look
Kate Haynes Murphy
Broadleaf, 208 pages, Published October 14, 2025
Just last Sunday, our pastor dipped her hand into a bowl of minuscule seeds. I smiled knowingly: those were mustard seeds, and I knew where she was heading (our itty bitty faith is sufficient for God to work amazing things … ) I get it. But do I live like I do?
Pastor Kate Murphy gets it, too, and yet, like us, she struggles to live in this way. In Lost, Hidden, Small, she explores the counter-cultural pursuit of following Jesus in our weakness. It’s a thoughtful journey, and it’s particularly effective because Murphy first counsels herself. She wryly offers stories in which she exerts frenetic energy in the service of Jesus and his church until she collapses. We see our own efforts in hers, recognizing that we could be lighter and more full of delight if we truly understood and could therefore trust God’s grace.
Lost, Hidden, Small reclaims common theological concepts — “repentance,” for example, is no longer spit out by street-corner preachers but instead reframed as a casting off of the world’s expectations. Followed by gentle questions like, “(w)ould I still want God if God wanted to make me new?” Murphy explores sometimes off-putting themes. Terms such as surrender, kinship and failure receive equally effective treatment, and the result is a gift to small groups and individuals looking to go deeper in their personal spirituality. Murphy closes with a tangible reminder that we all need to hear: it’s not our striving and efforts that please God, but our willingness to “learn to trust God when we cannot trust ourselves.”
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