Hymns for the Unfinished
A Memoir of Grief, Grace, and Becoming

What do we do with the parts of our lives that cannot be repaired?In Hymns for the Unfinished, James A. Luginbyhl searches for grace in the places where certainty has failed him: a West Texas ranch, the death of his father, the collapse of a marriage, years of regret, and the unbearable loss of his relationship with his daughters.Through deeply personal essays shaped by Scripture, memory, and the hard-earned wisdom of ordinary life, he returns to the people and places that formed him—a grandfather mending fences with baling wire, an orphaned calf named Annie, rain striking a caliche road, an old pipeline stretching across an empty field, and prayers spoken when no other words will come.These are not stories of easy answers or wounds neatly healed. They are stories of a man learning that faith is not the reward for finally getting everything right. It is the stubborn hope that Christ remains present in what is broken, unfinished, and beyond our power to redeem.Honest, lyrical, and rooted in the landscape of West Texas, Hymns for the Unfinished is a memoir of grief, failure, fatherhood, forgiveness, and the grace that continues working long after we believe our story is over.