Good News About Self-Care: How Nurturing Your Soul, Your Self, and Your Sanity Honors God

In Good News About Self-Care Benjamin Espinoza, a highly accomplished pastor, writer, and academic, explains how he learned the hard way about the importance of taking care of himself. In the past, he thought self-care was fluff, the habit of the weak. In these pages, Espinoza demonstrates that self-care is a biblical practice. He recounts how Jesus practiced self-care in his own life and cites examples from Scripture wherein God makes self-care a priority for his people. Espinoza adroitly highlights that Christian self-care is countercultural, enabling us to resist the culture’s push for productivity and the dehumanization of ourselves and our fellow human beings. Above all, self-care enables us to more fully honor God. Espinoza knows well of what he speaks. Listen to him.

In this book Benjamin Espinoza effectively illustrates two key foundations of the Christian life: (1) Jesus wants us to live abundant lives and (2) he is the Lord of our lives, not us. Therefore, a proper understanding of ourselves and our relationship with the Lord helps us practice self-care, enabling us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves adequately. This honest and practical book will indeed bring good news to our oftentimes weary souls.

Self-care is the word of the decade. Yet it has confusing practices, and in many ways, no definition at all. Good News About Self-Care is truly that: good news! The writing style is compelling, especially when coupled with Ben’s vulnerability and humility, and this book is packed with solid practices for self-care that is healthy both physically and spiritually. The probing questions at the end of each chapter call for deeper reflection. I highly recommend this book for spiritual and mental growth, no matter one’s calling, profession, or work.

Ben Espinoza’s Good News About Self-Care is refreshing in its simplicity and authenticity. Ben seamlessly weaves stories of his own journey toward emotional, spiritual, and relational health with insights from the lives of people we read about in Scripture—especially Jesus. Ben admits his own tendency toward overwork and dares us to disarm the incessant demands of connectivity and productivity we all face. He calls us to sanity, boundaries, and positive attention to all aspects of appropriate self-care so that, as persons created in the image of God, we can flourish.

Ben Espinoza is a seasoned leader, educator, theologian, and human being who shares his thoughtful insights on self-care. In a self-help world that promises quick fixes, shortcuts, and perfection, Ben offers reachable, doable, and sustainable approaches to give you small wins that fuel momentum. Before you pick this book up for someone else, read it for yourself. Trust Ben’s voice as an empathetic, wise, and hopeful guide who walks alongside you toward that full life Jesus promises (the one you desire to live). As Ben says, “Adelante”

— forward into the integrated wholeness you were made for!

This book isn’t a subtle deviation from the necessary selflessness of Christian holiness. It’s resisting the priority of success as defined by the world. Investing in others at the expense of bankrupting oneself is hardly modeling Jesus. The author has been on a mixed journey, driven to achieve and excel, admitting the spiritual challenges of an aggressive extrovert. Following Jesus requires respecting one’s own physical, mental, and spiritual self. We are responsible to honor—not worship—our bodies. The alternative will cut short productive discipleship. Espinoza encourages practicing the Sabbath, solitude, and selective use of technology. Self-care is Christian stewardship. If you love Jesus, start loving yourself!

A growing chorus of Christian ministers and academics has decried today’s existential crisis of the “empty self.” Whether one is far from God or intimately close to him, we live in a time of unprecedented change that is exacting an excruciating toll on us all. In Good News About Self-Care, Dr. Benjamin Espinoza challenges readers to recognize the limitations of our humanity and to respond by embracing self-care as an act of discipleship. Rooted in Scripture and teeming with pastoral wisdom, the book reframes self-care—not as selfishness but as the faithful stewardship of the imago Dei in us. Espinoza writes with stirring and courageous humility, weaving his own journey with practical and holistic guidance. Good News About Self-Care is a valuable resource for parents, pastors, students, and church leaders

— or anyone seeking to flourish in life or ministry through abiding in Christ. Both challenging and refreshing, this book deserves wide reading and much heeding.

This book is a wise and tender companion for anyone seeking spiritual guidance in our culture of overwhelm, exhaustion, and worry. Dr. Espinoza offers a vision of care rooted in wholeness, care that embraces our relationships with God, ourselves, society, and others. With both depth and practicality, he provides insight into why various dimensions of care matter and how to engage in them with grace and intention in daily life. This book invites readers to rediscover self-care as a deeply Christian practice, one that nurtures the soul, honors our limits, and helps us live more faithfully and fully.

In this book Benjamin Espinoza offers a courageous and encouraging vision of a complex topic: self-care. He does this by rooting the concept in the theological vision of the image of God and a self who is centered on the Lord. From this framework, Espinoza provides a compelling vision of pursuing healthy relationships with God and others, relationships that can’t flourish apart from attention to our own souls. By sharing himself and his journey with us, Espinoza paints a theologically rich vision of self-care that calls us to a deeper relationship with God and our neighbor.

“Work hard and play hard” is an easy, quick phrase we use too often to explain our effort in caring for ourselves. But with transparent care, Dr. Espinoza helps us see that self-care is far more than willful determination to balance two opposite priorities of life. Tending the well of our souls is an act of stewardship in respecting God’s greatest gift to us. Dr. Espinoza puts a powerful point on our call to honor God’s image in us and surrender to a new mind that weaves our lives into the wholeness God desires for us.

Good News About Self-Care is a comprehensive and scripturally grounded guide to self-care practices that every God-created human would be blessed to read. Benjamin Espinoza leads with his own story of discovering his need for self-care and finding fresh direction and unexpected encouragement in the Scriptures that he knows so well. If you have any doubt that God desires his children to practice self-care, or if you struggle to know how to implement self-care practices, this book is for you! It will be both a theological justification and a practical guide. Espinoza is truly a kindred spirit in caring for the well-being of people of God.

I often wake up to the pull of my cell phone—emails, schedules, and the weight of the day ahead. Choosing to wait until my quiet time is over before engaging with the digital world has become a small act of resistance. That’s why I’m so grateful for Benjamin Espinoza’s Good News About Self-Care. This book reframes self-care not as selfishness but as spiritual formation rooted in the Sabbath, Scripture, and the rhythms of grace. Espinoza’s emphasis on resistance to hustle culture and his call to honor the divine image through rest, boundaries, and relational health is both timely and theological. I encourage pastors, leaders, and laypeople to read this book and apply its principles. It’s not just about feeling better; it’s about the call to scriptural holiness, for each of us to become the person God made us to be. This is the kind of resource our churches and institutions need now.

Good News About Self-Care is a personal, practical guide to caring for the self by connecting with God. Ben shares not only his insights but also his soul

— a soul now in a better space because God has seen him through. If your soul needs care, this book is a good start.

From his personal transparency to practical steps and questions for reflection, Ben integrates self-care with spiritual formation. His unexpected suggestions on breathing, playfulness, grace with boundaries, and walking away are among contributions to flourishing over just surviving. There are wake-up calls related to the achievement addiction and the idolatry of productivity as well as to toxic workplaces and unhealthy relationships. What Ben offers in these pages are not magic bullets but actionable insights into the stewardship of self-care for your good and God’s glory.

In a culture (and a church!) marked by burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression, how can we pursue a flourishing Christian life? In Ben Espinoza’s Good News About Self-Care we get a gospel-infused picture of such a life and a clear road map to its realization. Espinoza offers practical wisdom to help us develop spiritual, social, emotional, and bodily rhythms that honor the ways God has created us. With a biblical approach to self-care grounded in the notion of stewardship, he helps us see and live into the beautiful life that God has designed us to pursue in our work, play, health, and spiritual practices. Filled with practical suggestions and real-world stories, Good News About Self-Care offers an alluring invitation to the abundant life that Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). In a world that so often deforms the soul, this is good news indeed!

Good News About Self-Care is timely, full of wisdom, and full of deeply practical counsel. With honesty, biblical insight, and pastoral warmth, Benjamin Espinoza reminds us that caring for ourselves is not selfish but a way of honoring the God who created us in his image and enables us to love others well.

During one of the most stressful times in my life, I read Good News About Self-Care. On every page, I heard God’s gentle voice urging me to slow down. The insight Benjamin Espinoza shares through his candid personal narratives is reflective and instructive. I applaud his courage in peeling back the layers of pretense that often shroud ministry leaders so that we can learn practical solutions that benefit us all. Good News About Self-Care elevates self-care to a spiritual discipline by highlighting its vital role in spiritual formation. After all, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we risk working ourselves into an early grave. The adversary of our souls rejoices when we neglect our spiritual, physical, and emotional self-care and become useless wrecks. I urge pastors, teachers, and ministry leaders to pause, take a break, and read this book!

Ministry can take us through seasons that are grueling, discouraging, and exhausting. Faithful and sustainable spiritual leadership requires us to steward all the gifts and means of grace available to us, including our physical bodies, our meaningful relationships, our emotional well-being, and perhaps most importantly, our souls and our spiritual lives. Good News About Self-Care is a rich, personal, pastoral resource that offers both thoughtful and practical guidance on how we can do this well.

This book speaks to the heart of struggles many Christians face but often feel too afraid to voice. Ben does a fantastic job of inviting readers into a sacred, safe space, one where they can wrestle with and identify the pressures they carry while also discovering practical and theologically sound steps forward. This is a great resource for people who are just beginning to explore what self-care means in a Christian context and for those who have been on this journey for some time.