Four years ago, Nathaniel Duncombe lost his mother. She was the woman who had walked him through his First Communion class and, years before that, served as his Akela in Cub Scouts. She was, by his own account, the person most responsible for his closeness to Christ. Her death did not push him away from his faith; it pulled him further in. He’d wanted to write a book for nearly a decade; her passing, and the years of grief and growth that followed, gave the idea its final shape.
“The rough patch I was going through was a few years ago, four years ago, when my mother passed,” Duncombe said. “She was not only my First Communion teacher, she was also my Akela for Cub Scouts. She was very impactful in my life, and that’s who inspired me to grow closer to Christ, especially going to church, having fellowship, as well as reading Scripture.”
He had wanted to write a book for about ten years, he said, but it was during Easter of this year that the idea finally took shape. What emerged was a 90-day spiritual journey meant to help readers not only draw closer to God, but understand who God is calling them to be. “It led me to deepening my faith and better understanding not only myself, but who God wants me to be,” he said, “loving not only myself genuinely, but loving others genuinely, yet at the same time focusing on building my relationship with Christ.”
A Faith Built on Presence, Not Perfection
For Duncombe, abundant life is not an abstract theological idea. It is something he has watched play out in the people around him. “As time continued, I saw not only Christ within myself, but through other individuals that in their actions, they showed their love that Christ had told us to share with others,” he said. “That is the key thing that emphasized to me how to pursue what is necessary in life. It’s all about showing love.”
That conviction shaped his decision to structure the book as a 90-day guide rather than a traditional devotional. “Each day has something more important built off of the previous one,” he explained. “It builds off of each other, and each day is impactful, and it teaches you how to not only grow with Christ, but to understand better who you are through Christ and in Christ.”
He believes most people are chasing the same things, whether or not they can name them. “Love, compassion, happiness, joy. These are some of the many things that many individuals constantly seek,” he said. “The only way to truly find them is through Christ.” He spoke from experience. At one point, he said he felt that a part of himself was missing, and it was daily meditation, Scripture reading, and a deliberate focus on loving others that filled it.
Believing Versus Living
Duncombe described faith this way:
“Faith is about believing even if it’s not there in the visual reality,” he said. “It’s more so knowing that you can overcome the world no matter what… Faith builds. Faith strengthens us. Faith makes us better.”
The title of the book, The Abundant Life, points to a distinction Duncombe returns to often: the gap between believing in Christ and actually building a life around Him. For him, that gap closes through agape love, showing others compassion, listening with empathy, and simply being present. “If you meet someone in your daily life that is having a bad day, just telling them something friendly, polite and kind can cheer them up,” he said. “It’s about being there for others in their time of need.”
He is candid about why that kind of faith is hard to carry into everyday life. According to him, “People fear being judged for showing their faith, some people wear a mask to conceal who they truly are because they don’t want to let others in, or don’t know how to ask for people to be there for them when they need that the most.”
Even as he emphasizes the 90-day structure, Duncombe is careful to frame it as a beginning rather than a finish line. “There is research in psychology suggesting that it takes about 90 days to change a habit,” he said. “So I focused on the intention of improving a good habit and guiding the readers to have the resources to get them to where they feel they should be, and even more so, helping them to grow closer to Christ.”
When Faith Meets Real Life
Duncombe does not shy away from naming what he sees as the obstacles most common in today’s culture. “Lust, greed, dishonesty,” he said. “Idolization, not genuine love. These are some of the many things that are within our society.” He points to a broader cultural shift away from the values previous generations held onto, and a corresponding pull back toward what he considers first things. “Just focusing on the key things that are the most important, which is growing closer to God, even more so the first love, which is the love of God.”
For readers who stumble along the way, his counsel is grounded and practical. “It’s more so forgiving themselves, knowing they did something wrong,” he said, “and then taking the necessary steps to make things better, going out of their way to grow closer to God.” Perseverance, he added, is not optional. “It’s about endurance. It’s about keeping the faith.”
From Personal Faith to Mission
(Nathaniel Duncombe, author of The Abundant Life, encourages readers to move beyond belief and put their faith into action through love, compassion, and meaningful service.)
Duncombe sees personal spiritual growth as something meant to move outward. “It’s about not only knowing about faith and how to build it,” he said. “It’s about sharing that faith with others and understanding that only together we can make the world a better place.” He is quick to note he does not think of himself in grand terms. “I don’t really consider myself a disciple,” he said. “I consider myself more so an adopted child of God, more so a loved child of God.”
That mission, he believes, starts close to home. “It’s important to look within your community and find opportunities there,” he said, pointing to his own long history of community service. He also rejects the idea that evangelization requires a public platform. “It’s not about us judging each other, who does this and who does that,” he said. “It’s about being comfortable with who you are in Christ, reflecting your faith in your individual gifts and talents.”
The timing of the book’s release lines up with something bigger than Duncombe’s own journey. World Mission Sunday 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the celebration, with the theme “One in Christ, United in Mission,” a phrase Duncombe says captures exactly what he hopes readers take from his work. “It’s about connecting with each other and showing our love as Christians, uniting as one body of Christ,” he said, “and focusing in on what our Lord Savior and Redeemer has taught us… through acts of kindness, through genuine compassion, joy, sharing it, and above all through loving one another as Christ has loved us.”
Bringing the Message to Readers
Duncombe’s book, The Abundant Life, was brought to readers with the support of Trinity Publishing Press. He describes the collaboration as formative. “It’s been a phenomenal experience,” he said. “I’ve learned and grown through the experience on getting a better understanding of how the process works, and it’s been wonderful to have a guide to show me the correct steps in making my dream of getting a book published into different homes and digital copies for individuals to grow and to learn more about Christ.”
Asked what he would tell someone who feels spiritually lost, his answer was immediate and personal. “I’ll pray with you. I can give you Scripture to read,” he said. “It’s about helping that individual get to where they would feel more comfortable with themselves and their relationship with Christ.”
That instinct to guide rather than lecture goes back years. As a young adult, Duncombe served as a Sunday school teacher for confirmation students, an experience, he said, that taught him how to sit with people’s hardest questions about faith. “Knowing where to go to get the answer, whether it be in the canon or from the Bible or another spiritual leader.”
And if there is one line he hopes readers carry with them long after they close the book, it is the one he offered without hesitation when asked to sum up his message:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Nathaniel Duncombe’s message reaches past the book’s final word. The Abundant Life is available through Amazon.
