The thing this review should have said first: Katie Orr writes primarily for women. Her ministry is built around biblical teaching and Bible-study resources for women, and retailers shelve this under Christian books for women.
The old version of this post was titled “A Man’s Guide to Spiritual Growth” and never mentioned that once. A man can absolutely read this book and get something from it. He should just know what he is picking up and who Orr had in mind while writing it.
Secrets of the Happy Soul: Experience the Deep Delight You Were Made For came out from Bethany House in March 2020, at 256 pages.
The argument
Orr goes after the assumption that happiness is either shallow or unspiritual. Her position is that God made people for delight, that the delight is real and available, and that it is not the same thing as circumstances going well.
The book is in two parts. The first establishes what a happy soul actually is. The second works it out across six areas, including being focused on God and being attached to God’s Word. Each area gets two chapters and a section she calls “Soul Searching.”
Psalm 1 does a lot of the heavy lifting, and it is the right text for the argument: the blessed man is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and the delight comes before the fruit, not after.
Why it might be worth your time anyway
Men are not generally over-served on this subject. The men’s shelf runs heavily to battle, mission, discipline, and leadership, and comparatively little of it addresses whether you actually enjoy God or have simply organized your life around obligations to him.
A man who has made his faith entirely a matter of duty is not helped by another book about duty. This is a book about delight, and the fact that it was written with a different reader in mind does not make the argument wrong.
Honest notes
The previous review claimed action steps and reflection questions at the end of every chapter. The “Soul Searching” sections are the verified feature. Check the preview for anything more specific.
It also described the book as a resource for men’s ministries, discipleship cohorts, and church-wide studies focused on community outreach and neighborhood service. That framing was invented. This is a book about interior life, not community engagement, and the post is still filed under Community, which is wrong. Flagged for correction.
One sentence in the old post was garbled to the point of being unreadable, a mangled reference to Matthew 5:14-16. Removed.
Who should read it
A man whose faith has become entirely obligation and who cannot remember the last time he enjoyed God. Anyone drawn to Psalm 1’s picture of delight. A reasonable book to read alongside your wife, since it was written for her audience and will give you something to talk about.
Skip it if the framing bothers you, or if you want something written to men specifically. That is a fair preference and this is not that book.
Secrets of the Happy Soul on Amazon