As a suburbanite who is deeply concerned about social justice, I often feel like a walking oxymoron. Or sometimes, just a moron. How, exactly, do you “act justly and love mercy” as Micah 6:8 says we ought to?

I regularly volunteer at a women’s homeless shelter in the city, I’m trying to educate myself about issues of poverty and injustice. I sponsor children through World Vision, I contribute money to Habitat for Humanity, I donate to an urban ministry.

But I live in a quiet, safe suburban neighborhood. Is that okay? This book offered both healing encouragement and a kick in the behind, and I needed both. It offered hope and insight on how to, as the subtitle says, "be the hands of Jesus wherever you live."

In the suburbs, knowing your neighbors' names is counter-cultural. I realized that I not only know my neighbors, I know their families, the details of their lives. I pray for them, specifically. I also actually spend time with them—even those who are different from me. They’re my friends. This book challenged me to continue that. It offered practical ways to be more intentional about showing God's love to my neighbors, but also to realize that people in the inner city and all over the world are my neighbors as well. I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Keri Wyatt Kent