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Why Did Savannah Guthrie Write A Book On Faith? Today Host Reveals
Savannah Guthrie embarked on a thrilling and terrifying journey to write her book, "Mostly What God Does" despite being a regular person and not a theologian or religious scholar.
Savannah Guthrie challenged herself to leave her comfort zone and do something thrilling and scary when she wrote her new book about faith, “Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere.” The process was scary for the TODAY co-anchor, who is Christian, because she is, in her words, a regular person and not a theologian or a religious scholar. And yet it was thrilling because her faith is an essential part of who she is.
Savannah Guthrie explains why she wrote Mostly What God Does
During an interview with TODAY Savannah Guthrie talks about her book "Mostly What God Does." She said, “It’s what makes me tick. It’s what makes me joyful. It’s what helps me navigate the world and stresses and disappointments and fears." In the foreword for the book, Guthrie outlines the six foundational aspects of a connection to God, including love, hope, and purpose, and emphasizes that the book is not only for those with a firm belief in God.
“I’m not writing this book from some mountaintop where I’ve received some wisdom, and now I’m imparting it to the world,” she explained in the TODAY.com interview. “No, I’m still down here, struggling. Still down here, disappointing myself. I’m still down here, needing faith, needing grace, needing mercy, needing love. That’s why I wrote the book — because I’m the person that needs to read it. And so I thought, if I do, then maybe others do, too.”
Prior to working on what became “Mostly What God Does,” Guthrie had co-authored two children’s books and was subsequently pitched follow-up projects. “From time to time over the years since I wrote those kids’ books, I might get an offer to write something: another children’s book or laughably even a cookbook once,” she shared, with a nod to her relative lack of skill in the kitchen that inspired the TODAY All Day series “Starting from Scratch with Savannah Guthrie.”
“But I’ve always been so busy with the (TODAY) show and I’ve got little kids and I never really wanted to write anything,” she added. About a year ago, Guthrie was presented with the opportunity to write a book about faith, and she said that she felt intrigued, excited and challenged by the idea. She decided to give it a try, since she considers her faith to be her greatest passion. “I wasn’t sure there would be a book at the end of it, but I knew that it would be a really important path and journey to take,” she stated.
Her interest in faith can be traced back to her childhood, growing up as a Baptist in what she calls a very churchy family. “We would go three times a week. It was very much part of my upbringing,” she recallsed “My sister has the best line in the book: She said, ‘God was the sixth member of our family,’ in our family of five.”
Over the years, Guthrie said that she has gone through seasons of devout study and enthusiasm about her faith, and also seasons of distance and disappointment, when her relationship with God wasn’t as strong. “All of what I have come to realize is that all of that is my faith story: belief and doubt, you know, joy, and also disappointment and sorrow. It’s all part of my faith journey,” she says. “It’s all enhanced what I believe and have come to understand about God.”
Savannah Guthrie hopes that message of love in the book resonates its readers
Savannah Guthrie's book's title, "Mostly what God does is love you," is a direct quote from a Bible verse translated by Eugene Peterson, a theme she knew early on in the writing process, aiming to convey the message that God loves you. “That sentence always hit me, and I loved it,” she explained.
She continued, “Because I think so many of us, particularly if you do come from any kind of faith background, you may be asking yourself, ‘What does God think of me? What is God doing right now? What does God think of that choice I made? Am I selfish? Am I flawed beyond reconciliation?’ The answer is, ‘Mostly what God does is love you.’ What has he been doing this whole time? Just loving you. And I love the simplicity and bareness of it. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.”
She also said that even if a reader is not of faith or is struggling with doubt, Guthrie hopes that message of love still resonates them. “I hope the book is appealing and compelling to anyone in any walk of life, because it’s just a gentle call to be loved. And once you feel that love, well, you’ll find that you can’t help but share it. It’s just contagious. And I think that’s really the thrust of the book and really what I was trying to say,” she added.
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