A Different Kind of Happiness
Discovering the Joy That Comes from Sacrificial Love
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True happiness comes from true relationship--and true relationship comes from sacrificial love
"Larry Crabb has done it again! In A Different Kind of Happiness I've been diagnosed gently, kindly shown Jesus, and then offered a better way. This is a profound, honest, life-changing book. This old cynical preacher found hope here. You will too."--Steve Brown, radio broadcaster, author, and seminary professor
"You will not be able to put this book down. Dr. Crabb shows the way to true happiness and joy--being like Jesus and getting your joy from Him. You may never be quite the same again after reading it."--R. T. Kendall, former minister of Westminster Chapel, London
"Dr. Crabb has a message that challenges the status quo: ultimately the Bible is about relationship. He reminds us that growing in sacrificial other-centeredness is not easy, but it is the way of Christ, which is a critical message for the body of Christ."--Jason Kanz, PhD, ABPP, board certified in clinical neuropsychology, Marshfield Clinic
"While reading this book I found my heart longing to love like Jesus loves. Larry writes in a way that stirs the deepest part of me, which truly does want what God wants. I wish every Christ-follower would read this book and allow God to create a vision in them for loving well."--Bill Lenz, senior pastor, Christ the Rock Community Church, Appleton, Wisconsin
"We were built for happiness. The path there is mostly misidentified and counterintuitive. In this book, Larry points to the life-giving way."--Dr. Kent Denlinger, pastor, Valley Springs Fellowship
How to love when you don't feel like loving
Everywhere we look, we see evidence that love is in short supply. Terror and corruption, school shootings and troubled marriages, impatient online sniping and character assassination--all point to the fact that we do not know how to love one another as Jesus commanded and modeled. We put our own interests, comfort, and happiness first, despite the fact that the greatest happiness comes through sacrificial love.
A Different Kind of Happiness shows you a love that is deeper than being nice and serving others. It's a love that relates to others in such a way that they feel heard, seen, and valued. A love that sacrifices and suffers and keeps loving, even when doing so is costly. This kind of love, says Dr. Larry Crabb, is the kind shown to us by our Creator and Redeemer--and it's the kind worth fighting for in all of our relationships.
Dr. Larry Crabb is a well-known psychologist, conference and seminar speaker, Bible teacher, popular author, and founder/director of NewWay Ministries. He is currently scholar in residence at Colorado Christian University in Denver and visiting professor of spiritual formation for Richmont Graduate University in Atlanta. Dr. Crabb and his wife of almost fifty years, Rachael, live in the Denver, Colorado, area. Learn more at www.newwayministries.org.
Endorsements
"Larry Crabb has done it again! In A Different Kind of Happiness I've been diagnosed gently, kindly shown Jesus, and then offered a better way. This is a profound, honest, life-changing book. This old cynical preacher found hope here. You will too. Love changes everything, but it's love that is more than a cliché. This is real love that stands up and sings the Hallelujah Chorus."
Steve Brown, radio broadcaster, author, and seminary professor
"Dr. Larry Crabb has a unique mind, and this book demonstrates this from start to finish. You will not be able to put this book down. Dr. Crabb shows the way to true happiness and joy--being like Jesus and getting your joy from Him. This is a book that will make you think, and you may never be quite the same again after reading it."
R. T. Kendall, former minister of Westminster Chapel, London (1977-2002)
"It is no exaggeration that Dr. Crabb has had a profound impact upon me, my family, and the community of believers to which I belong. Like his favorite prophet, Jeremiah, Dr. Crabb has a message that challenges the status quo: ultimately the Bible is about relationship. His latest book is a welcome yet challenging call to a lived relational theology. He reminds us that growing in sacrificial other-centeredness is not easy but it is the way of Christ, which is a critical message for the body of Christ."
Jason Kanz, PhD, ABPP, board certified in clinical neuropsychology, Marshfield Clinic
"For any Christian seriously committed to living as Jesus lived and loving as Jesus loved, this book is required reading. Functioning like a spiritual MRI, it exposes the narratives that support our flawed quest for happiness and resultant failure to love well. A diagnosis like this is not comfortable but it is required if we are to cooperate with the Spirit in the renovation of our hearts, to enjoy God as our greatest good, and to display His life in the way we relate to others."
Dr. Miriam Dixon, pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Golden, Colorado
"While reading this book I found my heart longing to love like Jesus loves. Larry writes in a way that stirs the deepest part of me, which truly does want what God wants. I wish every Christ-follower would read this book and allow God to create a vision in them for loving well. As a pastor I long to see this kind of Christlike loving lived out in and through every local church. If we did, the world would know that Jesus was sent from the Father and that we are His. Happy reading."
Bill Lenz, senior pastor, Christ the Rock Community Church, Appleton, Wisconsin
"It's time perhaps to recapture a bit of John Calvin's wisdom. He wrote that true wisdom is the product of two necessities: knowledge of God and knowledge of oneself. As usual, Dr. Crabb calls the reader to an awareness of oneself that opens the door for the truths of God to actually impact how one relates. For the honest pilgrim, it is an uncomfortable process, but as King Solomon wisely observed, the road to life most often travels through what seems like death (Prov. 14:12). We were built for happiness. The path there is mostly misidentified and counterintuitive. In this book, Larry points to the life-giving way. And he does so with a comprehensive understanding of the biblical narrative that provides the reader with categories for thinking about God's unfolding drama."
Dr. Kent Denlinger, pastor, Valley Springs Fellowship
"Every day I sit with people who are deeply disillusioned with what they're experiencing in the Christian life. Larry has painted a picture of hope . . . that underneath our struggles and emptiness is a different kind of happiness that can be released through sacrificial love. A powerful read for those who want to love others but find the battle of life keeps getting in the way."
Thomas Board, counselor/spiritual director
"Larry Crabb is my favorite author, and only more so after I read this book. His rigorous honesty about God, himself, and the Christian life is so needed--and so rare! Thank you, Larry, for reaching up to a shelf much higher than I could ever reach on my own and bringing down heavenly insight that is so deep, profound, and transformative."
Mark Halvorsen, radio talk show host, cofounder of Teamwork Africa
"A Different Kind of Happiness by Dr. Larry Crabb makes me long to love like Jesus did more than any other book I've ever read, other than the Bible itself. The bold assertion that loving like Jesus loved is the only way to true and lasting happiness, coming as it does from a master analyst of the inner life, makes you sit up and take notice. With deep compassion, surgical precision, and a high view of grace, Larry leaves us with no alternative but to pursue love in its truest form. He cuts away every pretense until we can grasp the real thing with both hands, or at least the aspiration of it. He brings the elements of the spiritual life into such sharp focus that we feel inspired to pursue with passion what is elusively achievable in this life and supremely available in the next."
Colin Dye, BD
"I have profited from Larry Crabb's writings over the years, but A Different Kind of Happiness may be my favorite. It strikes me as a breakthrough in Larry's thinking about this soul-forming world as a context for relational formation. It speaks eloquently to the heart's deepest desires and urges us not to be sidetracked by secondary goods in the pursuit of the one thing most needful, the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden the field, the high calling of living and loving like Jesus. Either we will embed our story in the world's narrative or in God's ultimate narrative, the greatest story ever told. The cost in this battle for a better love is nothing less than death to the world, the flesh, and the devil--but this pales in comparison with the eternal rewards that await the follower of the narrow way."
Kenneth Boa, author, speaker, and president of Reflections Ministries
"C. S. Lewis was convinced that when we confuse first things and second things nothing comes out right. Larry Crabb takes this principle and wisely and discerningly applies it to the relationships that form the heart of our lives. Jesus beckons us to relational purity, holiness, and deep, deep love and teaches these wonders are found by following a hard way, a narrow way that demands much and yet promises us the happiness we long for but too often seek in 'second things.' Larry helped me to understand this and I think--by God's grace--I'll be a better person as a result."
Chris Hall, president of Renovare
The Author
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Dr. Larry Crabb
Dr. Larry Crabb is a well-known Christian psychologist, conference and seminar speaker, Bible teacher, and author of more than twenty-five books--including When God's Ways Make No Sense and two Gold Medallion award-winners, Inside...
Continue reading about Dr. Larry Crabb