“Sonship” by Jay Cookingham

Jay Cookingham is a husband, a father, a pastor, a speaker, a cartoonist, a podcaster, and a writer. He also has a heart for reaching men, to help them recognize what God can do in their lives, no matter how broken they are or may feel, and what God has planned for them. 

The man knows of what he speaks and what he believes. He came from a background of abuse – by his own father.  Cookingham could have ended badly; he didn’t, and he attributes what happened to God.

Cookingham’s Sonship: Restoring a Man’s Identity is a 31-day devotional guide that comes from his experience and understanding. He wrote it, he says, because he discovered that, like himself, many men spend most of their lives “covering up, disguising themselves in fear of being discovered.” In Cookingham’s case, his search for meaning and a sense of his true self led him to choose the role of clown, masking his pain and anger with humor.

The secret, he writes, was discovering who his true father was. 

Jay Cookingham,

Each of the 31 devotions in Sonship is built around a single word – but each word is an important part of a man’s identity. Words, and the discussion and prayer for each, includes legend, mission, uproar, restore, guard, voice, silence, and more. And each ends with a step towards “unmasking” – questions, a prayer, quotations., and Bible verses.

Cookingham leads Strategic Fathering Ministries, which is dedicated to helping men become stronger fathers and sons. It includes special events, presentations at churches, and other kinds of outreach. He is also pastor of Bridge Builders Community Church in Hyde Park, New York.

Sonship is a quietly powerful book. It’s about men and designed and written for men. Simple and straightforward in style, it’s written to reach men’s hearts – and change them.

Top photograph by Sabine van Straaten via Unsplash. Used with permission.