Christian nonfiction

Trials, grit, and perseverance

The grit we develop in the valley is what keeps us going when the mountain gets harder. A book about trials, perseverance, and carrying enough fruit to sustain ourselves and others.

Working title

Lowland Fruit for the Highlands is a working title. More details will be shared as the book develops.

Cover concept

We often think of the mountaintop as the reward for getting through the valley. But the top can be the harder place to live. The air is thinner, the terrain is exposed, and the fruit we found below no longer grows there.

Lowland Fruit for the Highlands is about trials and tribulations, and how the obstacle itself can become the way forward. The grit and perseverance we develop through difficulty prepare us for what comes next.

The picture at the center of the book is simple: fill your bag with fruit before you climb beyond where it grows. What we gather in the lowlands can sustain us in the highlands—and leave us with something to share when someone beside us is struggling.

I’m exploring these ideas through James, Peter, Psalm 23, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and other scriptures, looking at what it means to endure, grow, and keep going when the path gets harder.

Images and pieces from the making of Lowland Fruit for the Highlands. Select an image to explore it.

A cover concept for the working title, bringing together the fruit of the valley and the demands of the highlands.

The book asks what trials can develop in us: grit, perseverance, and the strength to keep moving when the next season demands more.

The fruit in the bag is for ourselves and for others. I want to explore how what we learn through hardship can help someone else keep going.

James, Peter, Psalm 23, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes are part of the study behind this book.

By Tim James.

Lowland Fruit for the Highlands is a working title. More details will be shared as the book develops.