For peacebuilders, for activists, for social changemakers, burnout is often accompanied by guilt and shame—I don’t have time to feel this way when others’ lives are at stake—and so we attempt to push through, putting all our energies into the fight until we hit the proverbial wall. But this cycle can actually do real harm. So how do we be changemakers while avoiding burnout?

How can I be a peacemaker when I wake up so anxious each morning? Does this happen to you? I can go right to sleep at night, but about 4:30 something wakes me up. These are stressful times, when anxieties can run high, but here are 4 practices that can help.

Jon Huckin and Jer Swigart wrote, Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World to help   followers of Jesus become “everyday peacemakers.” I think they have succeeded in their peace mission. Mending the Divides is now one of my top ten books on peacemaking.

Mark Galli, Editor and Chief of Christianity Today, has done the world a great favor by writing Beautiful Orthodoxy: The Goodness, Truth, and Beauty of Life in Christ. This book is a breath of fresh air in a polluted, polarized world.

One of the best ways to acquire wisdom is through reading. The five books below describe Peace Catalyst International’s multifaceted approach to Jesus-centered peacemaking. Read them carefully and apply them practically to become a peace catalyst this year!  

In peacemaking, we often talk about this kind of thing on a large scale, but it actually applies to everyday relationships and conversations, and that’s what makes this book such a gem. The principles in Crucial Conversations empower us to both talk about the hard things AND maintain relationship. They give us the tools to “talk openly about high-stakes, emotional, and controversial topics.”

One of the best ways to acquire wisdom is through reading. So I have put together the top ten books on peacemaking for 2015. It was painful whittling the list down to only ten books, but hopefully this will give you some guidance as you seek to acquire wisdom.

When God turned my life toward peacemaking, I had a difficult time finding a mature evangelical leader who was both an authentic peacemaker and a faithful witness to Jesus. But I finally found one in David Shenk.

In an increasingly polarized and uncivil world, Both-And: Living the Christ-Centered Life in an Either-Or World by Rich Nathan and Insoo Kim is a breath of fresh air. No, actually it's a hurricane of robust theology, pastoral wisdom, and prophetic insight.