Reading Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard has significantly impacted my life and the lens through which I view it. It challenged my current perceptions of God, self, and faith and deepened my understanding of them to elevate my viewpoint to one where my fears and anxieties are like seeing the tops of clouds when we rise above them on a plane ride.

Because this book has been so impactful to me, I wanted to create and share the reading guide that I’ve made; a product of hours of careful ready and study. This reading guide is for:

1. potential readers who are evaluating whether this book will be helpful to them at this current point in their lives
2. current readers who are needing some aid in following Dallas Willard’s train of thought throughout the book
3. past readers who would like a memory refresher on the book’s major content

Whichever you are, I hope this reading guide is helpful to you. Now, I’d like to touch on the key insights that I’ve personally gained from reading this book.

Key Insight #1: It’s Possible!

I now know that the Matthew 6 and Psalm 23 life is possible. It is not a hopelessly high ideal for us to strive towards but never reach. Through seeking the truth about God and then asking accordingly for the “Triangle of Sufficiency” (faith, death-to-self-, agape love), depending on His grace to receive it*, we can become people that move through life with a peace that transcends understanding (Phil 4:7).

*Dallas defines grace as “active assistance in a person’s life to accomplish what they cannot achieve on their own“

Key Insight #2: A Fear-Dissolving Framework

I have found that book’s structure gives me a framework through which I can best address my fears and anxiety:

1. Meditation on God’s nature (both His power and love)
2. Who am I to God?
3. Reminder that we are in spiritual battle against real powers of darkness
4. Asking and depending on God for faith, death to self, and agape love (Triangle of Sufficiency) while putting myself in positions to receive these gifts that will make fear truly unnecessary

I find when I “shake myself awake” from the thrall of fear (usually of the future) and lead my mind through these truths in this particular order, the logical side of my mind is greatly impacted and God’s all-sufficiency becomes more than just a nice idea, but firm ground that I can stake my life upon. More on this in the next section.

Key Insight #3: Striving versus Making Space

The life without lack, as Dallas calls it, is less of a matter of striving like trying to hit a target with an arrow, but more like digging a hole (making space in our lives and heart) so that life giving water can fill it.

We do need to do something – that is, using our minds to meditate on the truths in the framework described above. But the meditation itself does not bring about the transformed self that depends wholly on God for what we need every day, every hour, every minute. It is merely making space for the real grace – the change we cannot do for ourselves – to fill our minds, heart, body, souls, and relationships.

Ideas for Integrating into “Real Life”

• Through reading the Chapters 1 and 2 of Life Without Lack I’ve been inspired to grow in meditating on God’s nature through observing nature and praising Him because He made it! It’s been such a treat to be able to go on walks everyday where there are trees and flowers blooming, squirrels darting back and forth, and birds chirping; all of these have become God saying to me and the world: “I love you!”
• As I struggle with general anxiety, I tend to naturally have a sense of unease permeating throughout the day. In the past few weeks since reading this book, taking my mind through the aforementioned framework leads me to lessen my grip on fears that usually have my mind going down endless rabbit trails of rumination. This brings me great hope that one day, little by little, faith, death-to-self, and agape love will be my primary realities – and that this is indeed what God is working on inside me at the very moment so it’s not all up to me!
  • In the coming weeks, I am going to try to follow this pattern of meditation and prayer deliberately 2-3 times a week so that when I am addressing my fears in real time, I would have this helpful response closer at hand.