Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

Max Lucado has written another great book with Outlive Your Life. I have really enjoyed reading his books and I love the way he writes. The writing is so solid, but I love the way he takes creative liberties with his stories and illustrations. He is a fantastic writer and his heart for it definitely comes through. He's passionate and wants to share that with his readers.

The sub-title for this book is "You Were Made to Make a Difference." A calling that is so applicable today just as it was for the first century church. Max takes the premise of this book from the opening chapters in the book of Acts. It was a time when the church exploded and were completely radical in their faith. I don't think it's any coincidence that I have been hearing messages and seeing other books being written on this topic. In the opening chapter of this book, Max tells a fable of a captain who lands on a group of islands and witnesses two very different qualities of life. He asks someone on the island where the quality of life is better, why it is so much better, and this guy responds, "Father Benjamin." The captains asks the guy to take him to where he lives, so takes him to all these places, but has yet to see him. The captain finally asks if he can talk to Father Benjamin, and the guy responds, no, because he has been dead for some time. The captain is confused, but then the guy says, you didn't ask about his death, but about where he lives, so they showed the captain that. It was because of how he lived that all these people had life. He had made a difference. Living your life to make a difference is not selfish, but a life of service.

"These are difficult days in our world's history. 1.75 billion people are desperately poor, natural disasters are gouging entire nations, and economic uncertainty still reigns across the globe. But you and I have been given an opportunity to make a big difference. What if we did? What if we rocked the world with hope? Infiltrated all corners with God's love and life? We are created by a great God to do great works. He invites us to outlive our lives, not just in heaven, but here on earth. Let's live our lives in such a way that the world will be glad we did."

We are called to live and be like Christ. Jesus Christ lived his life in a way that made a difference for everyone else. So why shouldn't we try to do the same. Now obviously we can't become a savior, but we can still make a difference, even if it ends up affecting just one person. We were being the church. This book was a challenge to me and I'm sure one that I will be reading quite often as a reminder.

Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.