Continuing in the Midst of Tension
A Feature Review of
Counterweights: An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World
Shannan Martin
Paperback: Revell, 2026
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Reviewed by Justin Lonas
These days, I often feel torn between two approaches to life—especially within the church and Christian spaces. On the one hand, I sense the pull to gaze into the abyss of what is going on in the world, to agonize over broken systems, suffering people, war, abuse, and wickedness in ways that pass lament and descend into despair. On the other hand, I’m tempted to a sing-song faith that pushes straight through to glory with only a passing gesture toward the sad life it longs to leave behind.
I understand both tendencies. But instead of choosing to turn a blind eye to one half of the story or the other, I want to live in the tension. I want to hear and tell the whole story. Hope that doesn’t acknowledge what’s broken isn’t hope, and sitting in the dark without any glimmer of restoration leads to despair.
In Counterweights: An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World, Shannan Martin invites us into a practice of holding that tension from a posture of balance. When we are weighed down by shame and sorrow, we don’t recover by pretending it’s not real but by adding joy and wonder to the other side of the scale. Balance, she says, is a dance. Not a perfect equilibrium, but an ongoing quest for truth, goodness, and beauty in the midst of the lies, evil, and ugliness of a fallen world.
To illustrate, Martin quotes Chef David Chang: “True balance is not an average. It is two forces in equal measure. A bowl of rice is bland. A chili relish is too salty and spicy to eat alone. Eaten together, they’re perfect—a constant pull between intensity and mildness” (16).
Through a series of short vignettes, like postcards from the past few years, the book narrates how this practice of counterweighting life’s heaviness has played out for her and her family. She explores the interplay between madness and miracles, lament and longing, poverty and plenty, and barriers and belonging. Each story of deep wounds from church community, physical suffering, loss of relationship, or disappointment is told in tandem with the discovery of unexpected fellowship, growth, silliness, or deep goodness that emerged alongside it.
Each chapter includes bullet-pointed examples of the counterweights explored in the story, from thrift-store finds to movie recommendations to pithy reminders. These function as “recipes” of a sort, pointing the reader toward some small, attainable, life-giving activity to begin to tilt the scale. The structure itself illustrates the practice of walking between the crushing and the nourishing, the sad and the silly, as quickly as life itself offers these things to us.
The book might feel disorganized and trite were it not for Martin’s deep, honest storytelling. The narratives have the feel of a good memoir—neither breezy nor raw, but real and inviting. She has lived the advice she gives, and that makes it seem appropriately “weighty” as an approach to the problems we face. This is no sugar-coated, oversimplified spirituality but hard-won wisdom shared with love.
There is perhaps an implicit component to the practices the book commends that Martin calls out directly in the last section—community. We all need a witness to the work of cultivating goodness, and sometimes we need others to place the weights of joy and hope on the other end of our flagging scales. The deepest fellowship may be in bearing one another’s burdens. It was always meant to be this way.
Justin Lonas
Justin Lonas is a poet, writer, cook, hiker, and amateur theologian. He holds an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary. He and his wife Rachel live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with their four daughters. By day, he serves churches and ministry organizations around the world through the Chalmers Center at Covenant College. His writing often explores nature, literature, and the church's ongoing struggle to live out the way of Jesus. Justin's website is jryanlonas.com.
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
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