Author: Jim Palmer

ISBN: 978-0-8499-1398-3

Divine Nobodies is like the Pearl of Great Price:  you stumble across it looking for something else—perhaps another devotional—and then you realize how valuable it really is.  This is a gem of a book, a quick read that stirs your soul deeply.

Jim Palmer was Somebody in the Christian world.  A recognized leader and speaker, pastor of a growing church, respected and acknowledged as a rising star in the Evangelical church.  Being Somebody was important to Jim because he had been Nobody all the time he was growing up.  He had finally found his place within the church, a place where he was important and looked up to.

And then he fell from grace—but not from Grace.  Even though Jim felt rejected by the church, God continued to seek him out, extending Love and Grace to him through all the divine nobodies in his life. 

These divine nobodies are the people you meet every day.  Some are Christians, some are not.  They are people like Wanda, the waitress at Waffle House and Mr. Adams, the mechanic who keeps Jim’s car running.  They are homeless people, abused children, gay people, Episcopal priests…people that you and I, like the Levites and priests in the story of the Good Samaritan, might walk by, pretending not to see them.

And they, like you and I, all have a spark of the Divine within them.  God sees them, whether we do or not, and He chooses to reveal who He is through them. 

Jim Palmer is disillusioned by the church.  He has discovered, however, that the church and Christianity are not the same thing.  He has discovered God.  The real God, not the pretend one we sometimes worship at church.  The God who loves divine nobodies.

Divine Nobodies will touch your heart.  Palmer is open, honest and vulnerable about the pain he and other divine nobodies have experienced, but he approaches it with grace and humor.  His pain is partially clothed in sarcasm and self-deprecating humor.  He treats the pain of others, however, with empathy and compassion.

This book will open your eyes to the suffering, the grace, the goodness and the holiness of the people around you.  It will help you see the world in a different way—perhaps a way that is closer to the heart of God.  If you let it—if you are as open, honest and vulnerable as the author—it will change you.  It will break your heart, and it will make you more compassionate and empathetic.  It will transform you from a priest or a Levite into a Good Samaritan.

The above review was contributed by: Penny Watkins, Free Lance Writer, Mother, Grandmother, and Cat Lady:  CLICK HERE  to read more of Penny's Reviews.