Outlive Your Life

I fully expected that Max Lucado's latest book, Outlive Your Life, would completely change mine. I eagerly opened the book, looking for something within its pages to crumble my complacency and fulfill my long-lost longings to make this world a better place. I desperately wanted something to quell my greatest fear: that life would one day pass me by and I will have done nothing more than twitter it away. I couldn't put the book down, as I looked for that single secret which would transform my ordinary life into something extraordinary and usable by God. Admittedly, I didn't find that secret, because it truly doesn't exist. But what I found instead was something much better and much more real.
Max Lucado has a particular gift in writing. He has the ability to make you feel so good when things are so bad, as well as an uncanny way of relating the Holy Scripture to our daily lives. In Outlive Your Life, Max uses a snapshot of the world we live in, with gut-wrenching statistics of poverty, hunger, and despair, to tug on our heartstrings until it has our stomach in knots and our hearts bursting with compassion. Then, gently and lovingly, he shows us in God's Living Word what needs to be done and why it is our responsibility to do it. Best of all, Max plants seeds of hope that we - together as Christians, with God's power - can truly change this world and affect our friends, our neighborhoods, and our culture for Christ.

He says, "God has given this generation, our generation, everything we need to alter the course of human suffering." He says that, collectively, we have all of the resources at our disposal to put an end to poverty and hunger. I was completely amazed to read that ending this kind of suffering is completely possible. A reality just waiting to happen. And although they certainly have their place, this isn't a shot-in-the-arm, let's all join hands and sing "Kumbaya" kind of a book. This is a book about getting down and dirty, complete with calloused knees, and eyes that are swollen from weeping for the lonely and the destitute. It's about completely accepting God's love and forgiveness in our own lives so that we can see the hurt and the needs in others' lives and take action.

Outlive Your Life is overflowing with Scripture, statistics, and amazing stories. Each chapter closes with a Scripture to meditate on and a prayer to make your own. The book itself closes with a discussion and action guide to help you move from hope to action. And to get the movement started, Max Lucado has donated all of the proceeds from this book and it's related products to World Vision, "a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice." (www.worldvision.org). What an amazing way to take action and make a difference in this world.

If you want your life to make a difference. If you have ever in your life wanted to change the world. If you want to share the Grace and blessings that God has given you, then you need to read Max Lucado's Outlive Your Life. Read it and receive hope. Turn that hope into action. And your life will be changed forever.