There’s something a little surreal about seeing a book you’ve worked on for a long time suddenly sitting there on Amazon, available for anyone to read.
But there it is.
Sanctuary Devotional: A Mental Health Journey Towards Hope & Healing, the new 365-day devotional I co-authored with Dr. David Hoskins, is officially published and available on Amazon.
This one means a great deal to me.
For more than a decade, much of my writing has intersected with people walking through some of life’s most difficult places—mental and emotional health struggles, addiction and recovery, grief, trauma, broken relationships, fear, shame, loneliness, and the countless other circumstances that can leave us wondering where God is in the middle of it all.
David and I have also spent years working alongside people in those places. He brings decades of experience in behavioral healthcare; I bring my years as a pastor, chaplain, and writer. Sanctuary Devotional grew from the intersection of those worlds—and from a shared conviction that spiritual health matters deeply when the rest of life hurts.
This isn’t a book offering easy answers to difficult problems.
It’s a book about finding hope.
Each day offers a short Scripture-centered reading designed to meet readers where they are and gently point them toward God’s presence, grace, and promises. The readings are intentionally brief and accessible. Some days, after all, we have the emotional and spiritual bandwidth for deep study. Other days, getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other feels like an accomplishment.
We wrote for those days, too.
The devotional is designed as a yearlong journey, with one brief reflection each day—something to carry with you as you move through the hours ahead, or to settle into at day’s end as you seek peaceful rest through the night. The hope is that the few minutes spent reading don’t end when you close the book, but give you a word, a thought, a promise, or a glimpse of hope to hold onto.
Our desire is not to replace professional care, counseling, community, or deeper engagement with Scripture, but to provide a faithful companion along the way—a daily reminder that whatever today holds, you do not walk through it unseen.
And that brings me to another reason I’m sharing this here.
Maybe Sanctuary Devotional isn’t a book you need right now.
But perhaps you know someone who does.
Maybe it’s a son or daughter struggling through a difficult season. A spouse carrying more than they let anyone see. A friend walking through recovery. A parent grieving a loss. Someone battling loneliness, anxiety, discouragement, or simply trying to hold onto hope one day at a time.
If someone came to mind as you read that, would you consider telling them about the book—or perhaps sending them a copy?
Sometimes helping someone find hope doesn’t require knowing exactly what to say. Sometimes it simply means putting something hopeful into their hands and saying, I thought of you.
After years of writing these reflections, shaping them, revisiting them, and preparing them for publication, it’s gratifying to finally be able to say:
Sanctuary Devotional is here.
And my hope is that it finds its way into the hands—and hearts—of the people who need it most.
DARIN MICHAEL SHAW 