Sarah Young’s devotional Jesus Calling has resonated with readers since it came in 2004. Its sequel devotionals and offshoots, including audiobooks and children's titles, have sold cumulatively 50 million units, according to HarperCollins. But Young, who died in 2023 at age 77 after a lifetime of chronic illness, shared little of her personal story and rarely gave interviews.

Now, her brother, Timothy Kelly, is bringing her story to life in his book, Sarah Young’s Journey to Jesus: A Brother’s Personal Remembrances (Whitaker House, May). Kelly told PW in an interview from his home in China that when she died, he spent weeks weeping and remembering his sister until he realized these memories could be a book about her that would be "a blessing to readers."

"I like to say that the book paints a portrait of her—the tender, loving, creative, smart, feisty person she was. She was a winsome and lovely person," he said.

But her life was difficult, Kelly recalls in the book, beginning with a childhood in which her father was rarely kind to her. "For Sarah, although she tried to mask it, Daddy’s detachment hurt deeply," Kelly writes." He sometimes complimented our oldest sister (the firstborn), our youngest sister (the baby of the family), and myself (the only son), but he rarely said anything positive to Sarah. In fact, he regularly turned his sharp intellect toward her, making critical observations of her shortcomings—often as sarcastic comments.”

The book describes the relationships, influences, struggles, and joys that made Sarah the deeply spiritual person she became. The siblings were close and “lived a parallel journey through much of life,” Kelly told PW. He noted that they both found their Christian faith, earned undergraduate degrees in philosophy, and master's degrees in theology and counseling.

By the time Young was living abroad as a missionary with her husband, she was in chronic pain, the result of long-undiagnosed Lyme disease. "If I had to deal with 10 percent of what she did, I’d be screaming to the world," Kelly said.

Sarah, however, dealt with her suffering by turning to Jesus, Kelly said. She wrote every day about how Jesus helped her cope with pain and disappointment and still find joy and redemption; a year of her devotions later became her first book, Jesus Calling (Thomas Nelson). It was such a success that her next two devotionals were each launched with a first printing of a million copies, according to HarperCollins. The publisher called Jesus Calling “among the top-selling books of all time” in a press release to mark the brand’s sales surpassing 50 million. Michael Aulisio, VP and publisher of the Jesus Calling Brand, said, “For many people, Jesus Calling became part of a daily habit, especially during difficult or uncertain seasons.”

Television personality Kathie Lee Gifford, in the foreword for Kelly's book, described how she was affected by both Jesus Calling and a personal visit with Young. "She was so tiny and frail, almost birdlike in her appearance. And yet her eyes were clear and her smile was joyful and radiant," Gifford writes. "The legacy she has left behind for the world is priceless."

Even so, after her death in August 2023, the Presbyterian Church in America, of which Young was a member and under whose auspices she and her husband were missionaries, took issue with Young’s books. Some said Jesus Calling falsely spoke for Jesus, overshadowing the Bible, and that her success challenged the authority of male leaders. Ultimately, the denomination didn’t end up condemning the book nor calling for an investigation.

Kelly doesn’t address the dust-up in the book. Instead, he ends the biography with his sister’s favorite Bible verse (Matt. 11:28-29), as Young would have wanted. "Writing this book changed me," Kelly told PW. "You can’t study the life and times of Sarah without being challenged to dive more deeply into his presence daily, and to live more fully the life of a redeemed child of God."