Maggi Dawn reimagines Lent as a journey beyond certainty into deeper encounter with God. Her 47-day devotional challenges comfortable faith and opens scripture afresh, says our reviewer
Lent is commonly thought of as a season of personal denial, but in Giving It Up (BFR Ministries), Maggi Dawn invites readers to consider the wider purposes of Lent.
Rather than merely giving up treats or habits, she challenges readers to relinquish some of their certainty. She leads a 47-day journey that gently dismantles inherited ideas of who God is. This is not a devotional designed to soothe or reassure, but one that seeks to re-form perception and deepen faith through encounter.
It is an enlightening read, particularly for those, like myself, who have given little thought to the practices of Ash Wednesday or the feast days of Lent.
Dawn opens up the idea of fasting, what it looks like when practised in community and how it reshapes the way faith is lived. The book follows the rhythm of Lent itself, moving from Ash Wednesday through to Holy Week. The opening section, focused on “giving up”, frames Lent as more than the denial of comforts; it is a call to surrender narrow constructs of God and to confront mortality, dependence and the gift of life itself.
As the reflections move into Jesus’ time in the wilderness and beyond, Dawn resists romanticising struggle. The wilderness emerges as a place of preparation and transformation, before the lens widens to other biblical wildernesses marked by suffering, confusion and a perceived divine absence.
Scripture is handled with care and imagination throughout. Dawn has a particular gift for taking familiar passages like the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the good Samaritan and the feeding of the 5,000, and drawing out fresh meaning. Attention is drawn to their risk, vulnerability and social cost, challenging comfortable or individualistic readings. These texts are reopened rather than recycled, allowing scripture to remain rich rather than over-explained.
The book consistently resists the tendency to treat scripture as a template for private spirituality, instead presenting it as the story of a people being reshaped by God. This emphasis on community is one of its key strengths, particularly in its insistence that fasting and repentance have social as well as personal consequences.
The book repeatedly returns to the paradox of a God who is both revealed and unknowable
The willingness to engage difficult themes further distinguishes Giving It Up from many devotional works. Questions of suffering, social exclusion, entrenched prejudice and the apparent absence of God are addressed honestly, without being forced into resolution. Reflections on figures such as Job and Moses acknowledge the limits of theological explanation and suggest that faith ultimately requires encounter rather than mastery. The book repeatedly returns to the paradox of a God who is both revealed and unknowable, resisting attempts to domesticate mystery.
Dawn’s writing is clear, reflective and pastorally sensitive. Too often devotional resources rely on clichés or anecdotes at the expense of theology. Here, however, a careful balance is struck between biblical scholarship, historical context, story and application, allowing the devotional to remain accessible without becoming shallow. The content invites attentiveness rather than haste, trusting the reader to linger with ambiguity rather than demanding quick clarity.
This approach will not suit everyone. Those seeking brief, inspirational reflections or neatly resolved conclusions may find the pace demanding and the emphasis on paradox unsettling. At times, the reflections would benefit from a clearer sense of progression.
Later sections focus on changing perceptions, reshaping community and the costly renewal of the mind, before culminating in Holy Week’s confrontation with grief, love and hope. These final reflections are particularly effective. Jesus is not presented in softened or sentimental terms, but as a figure of courage, emotional depth and costly love. Easter emerges not as a tidy conclusion, but as a promise that absence and silence have been pierced by hope, a fitting culmination for a devotional concerned with seeing God more clearly by relinquishing control.
Ultimately, Giving It Up suggests that the longer God is known, the more deeply his mystery is recognised. What is most needed is not explanation, but encounter, and this devotional consistently makes space for that encounter to take place.
This would be a helpful resource for individuals or groups, with the points for reflection at the end of each section proving especially useful for discussion. It offers a challenging and encouraging companion through a significant season in the church calendar.
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