The Lives We Actually Have is a collection of warm and witty blessings found within the struggles of our shared humanity, from The New York Times bestselling authors Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie.

This world demands relentless perfection. Happy marriages and easy friendships. Bucket-list-level adventures and matching family photos. But what if actual life doesn’t feel so #blessed? Might our regular lives be worthy of a blessing too? 

Bowler and Richie offer creative, faith-based blessings that center gratitude and hope while acknowledging our real, messy lives. Formatted like a prayer book, The Lives We Actually Have is an oasis and a landing spot for weary souls, with blessings that focus on the full range of human moments. These heartfelt blessings are a reminder that we don’t have to wait for a perfect life when we can bless the lives we actually have.

Kate Bowler is the associate professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School, The New York Times best-selling author of Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I've Loved) and Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection, and host of the Everything Happens Podcast. Her other books include Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities, and No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). She co-wrote Good Enough and The Lives We Actually Have with Jessica Richie, executive director of the Everything Happens Initiative and the executive producer of the Everything Happens Podcast, who is completing an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School.