The Thing Beneath the Thing
What's Hidden Inside (and What God Helps Us Do About It)
- Counseling, Grief & Mental Health
- Publisher: W Publishing Group (Thomas Nelson)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
We all have a surface self we present to the world, but our smiling faces often hide our pain that comes from unsuccessful attempts to find relief through harmful choices. How can we keep past wounds from damaging us? Learn to allow God to heal triggers, insecurities, and more so you can experience spiritual health and wholeness. Every driver knows the importance of avoiding potholes when navigating a route. Besides the uncomfortable bump, they can create permanent damage to vehicles and endanger entire roadway systems. The same is true of our lives. We all have potholes that have been formed by pain, trauma, or choices that we’ve made. Usually we find a quick fix, filling the hole with activities and even addictions disguised as culturally acceptable life choices. But before long, the hole is back—and often wider and deeper—waiting to catch us off-guard, which in the end creates even more permanent damage. In The Thing Beneath the Thing, pastor Steve Carter asks the simple question, “How is life working for you?” He knows that potholes exist and that the longer we live disconnected from answering this question, the more we will fill those holes with harmful choices. The solution? Allow God to fill them with His grace and love so that we can discover the beauty of peace and wholeness He has for us. The process lies in discovering our: Triggers: the setup that sets us off Hideouts: where we go to escape the pain of our story Insecurities: the false stories we create about ourselves Narratives: the false stories we create about others Grace: the place where we discover how to become whole, holy, and spiritually healthy Journey with a seasoned fellow traveler who has learned how to ask key questions that help us unlock the places where we’ve buried things. Then we can dig deep, invite healing, and learn new ways to operate so we can begin experiencing the life of freedom Jesus promised.
Endorsements (7)
“Some books have the potential to literally save your leadership (and your life). This is one of them. Piercing, scary, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and completely disarming, The Thing Beneath the Thing will take you places you don’t want to go but absolutely need to go.”
“My brother Steve Carter is a gifted archaeologist of the soul. There’s so much that’s inside all of us: both beauty and brokenness, pain and hope. Some of it is buried deep. And it takes a trusted, skilled, and seasoned guide to lovingly help us discover not just what’s there, but what’s possible. Steve is that guide. He doesn’t invite you just to look at the dusty, hollow bones of your mess, but to discover the fullness of who God longs for you to be on full display: out of the hole and wholly into the light. This journey of The Thing Beneath the Thing will require a willing heart—and Steve Carter has gone first, giving the fullness of his heart to us.”
“Steve wrote the book I wish I had to guide me years ago. If you want to live an authentic life, an actual Jesus-centered life, and a life that is truly healed and whole, this is for you. Filled with hope, humor, and a whole lot of grace, this is a book you’ll want to return to again and again and give to everyone you know who wants real freedom.”
“Steve Carter is a guide, a sage, a man who has seemingly lived this life before. We all need them, but very few of us have them—people like Steve. As soon as I picked up this book, I couldn’t put it down. The Thing Beneath the Thing is raw yet relatable, real yet reasonable. Steve provides a playbook on how to handle our emotions, both spoken and unspoken. How to lead with courage and address the areas in our lives that we’ve been afraid to talk about. He helps us heal. Leaders and followers, both young and old, need this book. Men, women, and children need this book. I need this book. Thank you, Steve, for being courageous enough to go there.”
“Steve Carter hits the bullseye in this riveting book. Why do we do what we do? Steve expertly unpacks how to identify the source of our behaviors, which, he explains, is ironically the best way to uncover our truest selves! This beautiful truth is shared with wisdom, grace, and humor. I laughed and cried! This book sparked a longing in me for a deep and honest life. These truths will help us all live the life we’ve been made for.”
“Steve is the guide that many of us have been searching for and are finally discovering. His words have spoken so much truth into my life over the past few years, and now, with the release of The Thing Beneath the Thing, Steve will send those words of healing into the hearts of thousands. I’m certain that healing and freedom will follow every single human who digests them.”
“When I think of healthy leadership and leaders who can help me work on that, Steve Carter is one of the first names to come to mind. So for him to write a book on the layers below our decisions, emotions, and directions is a blessing—to all of us. This book is a must-read for anyone, especially a leader, helping them to grasp those things lurking deeply that will allow them to fall or push them to succeed.”
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