Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 4(1),  Summer 2022 

Chettri, Book Review  41 

  

Book Review 

 

The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope for Leaders 

after Idealism Fades  
 

By Peter Greer and Chris Horst 
 

Reviewed by Saroj Chettri 

 
 

 
 

Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2022. 

$22.99 

 

In The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope 

for Leaders after Idealism Fades, Peter Greer and 

Christ Horst provide a gift to leaders, particularly those 

in ministry, nonprofits, and humanitarian sectors, who 

feel burned out, stressed, and running low on hope. 

Their basic argument is that disillusionment, a state of 

discouragement, is a gift for Christians who are 

struggling because the idealism they once enjoyed, 

when they brimmed with optimism, hope, and visions 

of a better world, is fading. Disillusionment comes 

because of inevitable challenges in ministry and 

personal life, including racial injustice, poverty, political 

polarization, and leaders' moral failures, including those 

of pastors, all of which involve crushed expectations 

and painful experiences. Individuals cannot master 

these circumstances, engineer happiness, or find refuge 

from real pain, and, as a result, hardship and deep 

disappointment may become uncontrollable (15). Yet 

God does not allow such despair to lead to cynicism, 

using it instead for good; that is if one allows him. And 

here is where the gift of disillusionment lies: it is an 

invitation to turn toward a closer relationship with God. 

Greer and Horst remind readers that disillusionment 

and cynicism need not win the battle, for God is always 

available and always at work.  

The book is divided into four sections. The first 

discusses false hope, faint hope, and forgotten hope, all 

of which lead to disillusionment. The second section 

explains how disillusionment leads to enduring hope in 

the midst of suffering, surrender, and commitment. 

The third section focuses on justice, sacrifice, and 

forgiveness. And the fourth speaks on moving onward 

with discernment, obedience, perseverance, and 

community. The authors remind readers that in 

experiences of lost hope, one should look upward, not 

inward. Instead of relying on one’s own personal 

abilities, we do so much better to depend totally upon 

God, because he is the ultimate hope. One should not 

rely on personal strength and abilities but on God's 

strength. It is this type of rooted faith that nourishes 

what the authors call “enduring hope,” modeled by 

Jesus and his disciples in suffering, and that is one of 

the distinctive features of the Christian faith (85). The 

authors continuously remind us to focus on love, 

surrender, commitment, sacrifice, forgiveness, 

discernment, obedience, and perseverance. 

The authors’ insights come from the inspiring 

stories and challenges of Christian leaders: pastors, 

doctors, financial experts, educators, and other leaders 

from Guatemala, Poland, the Philippines, Oklahoma, 

Detroit, Zambia, and elsewhere. They have all 

experienced the suffering of disillusionment, but were 

able to find hope by turning their respective crises into 

opportunities to place a deeper trust in God and to find 

there an enduring hope. Each chapter contains a story 

of frustrated people in pain who manage to look 

upward and rely on God. Their hope was rooted not in 

their circumstances nor in their ability to change them, 

but in their trust in God's infinite faithfulness (77). Such 

trust ultimately helped them overcome the obstacles in 

their work and make them stronger and more effective.  

One highlight is the story of Jo Anne Lyons, 

founder of World Hope International. Lyons was 

raised in a Christian household and, along with her 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 4(1),  Summer 2022 

Chettri, Book Review  42 

  

husband Wayne, developed a Wesleyan church in 

Kansas City. During the civil rights movement, she 

found her church remained silent; the congregation 

wanted no role in the protests even if they were peaceful 

and just (44). Church leaders ignored her pleas to 

become engaged in these matters of gospel-centered 

social justice, refusing to act on matters that, from her 

perspective, so clearly mattered to God (45).  As a 

result, Lyons grew cynical toward the church she once 

loved. But at some point she realized she should look 

to God for hope rather than to a church, and she found 

that God was the only reliable source of enduring hope. 

"She turned upward to God. She prayed, worked, and 

waited, and all the while, God sustained a vision in her 

heart for the church to bring the Great Commission and 

the greatest commandments together" (49). Though 

Lyons had every reason to stay cynical, she overcame 

cynicism when she relied totally on God and gained the 

courage to move forward by connecting gospel witness 

with social action. That connection evolved into World 

Hope International. Today, World Hope International 

serves over thirty countries to alleviate suffering and 

injustice through provision of clean water and energy, 

global health care, human rights services, and social 

ventures. 

Throughout the book, Greer and Horst draw on 

the prophet Jeremiah’s journey, reminding leaders to 

seek God's guidance, even as they persevere and remain 

obedient. Jeremiah had the extremely difficult and 

painful task of communicating God’s message to a 

people who did not want to listen. He was despised, 

rejected, humiliated, arrested, assaulted, and 

threatened with abduction and death. Even his relatives 

conspired against him and betrayed him. Through all 

of this, Jeremiah often inspired hope in people during 

difficult times. Through all of the turmoil, he remained 

faithful to God and his call. As the authors note, 

"Jeremiah did not fully understand God's plan, yet he 

obeyed. He chose to kneel, bow, and submit" (174). 

They explain how Jeremiah serves as an example of the 

gift of disillusionment in that self-reliance is an idol of 

illusion. 

The Gift of Disillusionment can help leaders and 

Christians of all backgrounds move forward by 

reminding them to trust God regardless of their 

challenges. The real stories, along with the references 

to Jeremiah, will help all those working in difficult 

situations and who have lost hope. While it would be 

wonderful to have more details of the personal 

challenges faced by the leaders mentioned, the accounts 

provided from different countries serve as models of 

direction and discernment for continuing to follow the 

call to participate in God's work in the world. I 

recommend this book because readers will feel inspired 

to seek God's presence regardless of their suffering, to 

resist the temptation to rely on their own personal 

resources, and thereby engage in honest evaluations of 

our human limitations and our ultimate dependence on 

God. 
 

 

Saroj Chetri is the Love Your Block Administrator at 

Pottstown Community Action. He also worked as 

Area Manager at World Vision Timor-Leste and Area 

Development Program Manager at World Vision 

International Nepal. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. 

in Organizational Leadership at Eastern University. 

 

 Author email: saroj.chettri@eastern.edu  

 

mailto:saroj.chettri@eastern.edu