Finding Saint Francis: Simple Truths About Joy, Acceptance and Freedom (The "Finding..." Series)

If you’ve encountered Francis of Assisi before, you’ve probably seen him as a garden statue. He’s standing peacefully among flowers and birds, often with a rabbit at his feet and a dove on his shoulder, projecting serenity so complete it seems otherworldly. The statue Francis is gentle, patient, impossibly holy- a plaster saint whose life was so pure and perfect that it offers little connection to ordinary human experience.The real Francis was complicated, passionate, struggling. He had a terrible temper he never fully mastered. He doubted constantly, sometimes spending entire nights wrestling with questions that had no answers. He pushed his body past reasonable limits, then had to apologize to it for years of mistreatment. He failed to keep his own movement true to his vision. He was, until the day he died, stubbornly and beautifully human.This book is about the real Francis, not the statue. It’s about a wealthy young man who felt trapped by expectations and possessions, who made a dramatic choice to let everything go, and who discovered extraordinary freedom through that release. It’s about someone who kissed a leper and found that the person he most feared became his greatest teacher. It’s about a life of radical poverty that created radical joy, about calling everyone and everything “family,” about singing praise while going blind and dying in pain.The real Francis is more helpful than the statue Francis precisely because he was real- flawed, struggling, making it up as he went along, learning from failures as much as from successes. His transformation wasn’t about becoming perfect. It was about becoming authentic, about discovering who he actually was underneath all the layers of expectation and performance, about finding freedom through letting go of everything that imprisoned him.This matters because Francis’ story isn’t just historical curiosity about a medieval saint. It’s an invitation to consider whether the cage you’re living in might also be unlocked, whether the weight you’re carrying might be optional, whether freedom might be available through release rather than through accumulation.This book tells Francis’ story chronologically in four parts, then explores what his life teaches us about living now.Part One: The Unmaking follows Francis from his privileged youth through his radical renunciation of wealth and family. It explores how expectations and possessions can function as cage, how the things meant to secure us can actually imprison us, how sometimes transformation requires dramatic release of everything we’ve been carrying.Part Two: The Remaking shows Francis discovering his path- serving lepers, rebuilding churches, learning from nature, gathering brothers, insisting on absolute poverty despite pressure to be more reasonable. It reveals how letting go creates space for discovering who you actually are, how radical trust becomes possible when you have nothing left to protect, how kinship extends to everyone and everything when you stop building walls.Part Three: The Unraveling faces Francis’ final years- his body’s breakdown, his inner struggles with anger and doubt, the stigmata that marked him permanently, his movement changing in ways he couldn’t prevent. It shows that transformation doesn’t mean escaping human limitation, that authenticity includes acknowledging failure, that even saints remain stubbornly human until the end.Part Four: The Legacy draws out practical lessons for contemporary life. What does Francis teach about letting go in an era of accumulation? About connection in an age of division? About authenticity in a culture of performance? About joy despite circumstances that make joy seem impossible? Read more