A Life That Matters

In this inspiring, uplifting and timely book, Harold Kushner addresses our craving for significance, the need to know that our lives and choices mean something. We sometimes confuse power, wealth and fame with true achievement. We can do great things, and occasionally terrible things, to reassure ourselves that we matter to the world. We need to think of ourselves as good people and are troubled when we compromise our integrity to be successful and important. In Living a Life That Matters, Rabbi Kushner suggests that the path to a truly successful and significant life lies in friendship, family, acts of generosity and self-sacrifice, as well as in God's forgiving nature. He describes how, in changing the life of even one person in a positive way, we make a difference in the world, give our lives meaning, and prove that we do, in fact, matter.

The choice to live an ordinary life is no longer an option! Greatness-lasting greatness-is a desire built into every human heart. For the believer in Christ, it is not only possible, but expected. How will your life matter? God wants your life to count for eternity. He wants you to join the team of rescuers He is sending into a desperate world.

Seven Key Ways to Live a Life That Matters We live in a culture that permits everything, surrounded by people skimming the surface of life, trying to piece together meaning from ever-shifting truths and fleeting fads. But in a world that stands for nothing, you can choose to stand for Something. With warmth and wisdom that only comes from weathering the storms of life, Dennis Rainey shares seven ways to not only build a strong foundation, but to choose to live the life of purpose and potential you were created for. When the winds of culture blow, you will be able to stand firm on the Truth. You will be able to choose a life that matters. A life that makes a difference in the here and now--a life that echoes into eternity. You are at a crossroads of culture and Christianity. Which way will you choose to live?

In a culture obsessed with happiness, this wise, stirring book points the way toward a richer, more satisfying life. Too many of us believe that the search for meaning is an esoteric pursuit—that you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to discover life’s secrets. The truth is, there are untapped sources of meaning all around us—right here, right now. To explore how we can craft lives of meaning, Emily Esfahani Smith synthesizes a kaleidoscopic array of sources—from psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists to figures in literature and history such as George Eliot, Viktor Frankl, Aristotle, and the Buddha. Drawing on this research, Smith shows us how cultivating connections to others, identifying and working toward a purpose, telling stories about our place in the world, and seeking out mystery can immeasurably deepen our lives. To bring what she calls the four pillars of meaning to life, Smith visits a tight-knit fishing village in the Chesapeake Bay, stargazes in West Texas, attends a dinner where young people gather to share their experiences of profound loss, and more. She also introduces us to compelling seekers of meaning—from the drug kingpin who finds his purpose in helping people get fit to the artist who draws on her Hindu upbringing to create arresting photographs. And she explores how we might begin to build a culture that leaves space for introspection and awe, cultivates a sense of community, and imbues our lives with meaning. Inspiring and story-driven, The Power of Meaning will strike a profound chord in anyone seeking a life that matters.

Hutchcraft writes the reason many Christians feel restless is that God has created them to be consumed by the work of God on earth: to seek and save the lost. This inspiring resource gets readers fired up about helping the lost, and walks them through many practical ways to effectively and passionately share Christ.

A LIFE THAT MATTERS is a fascinating and profoundly moving new book by a surgeon who has devoted his life to helping the world's most unfortunate children grow up with faces that allow them to know they are part of the human community-assured that they are ordinary in the very best way and fully capable of being loved. We present ourselves to the world foremost with our faces, Dr. Ken Salyer explains, and the people we meet initially look to our faces to ascertain who, in fact, we are. Dr. Salyer is a fiercely intelligent, energetic, insatiably inquiring, and deeply compassionate man whose life has been one of service. As he writes in his introduction to A LIFE THAT MATTERS, he is "convinced that possessing a face you aren't forced to hide is a fundamental human right-as important to a fully lived life as freedom from fear or want." And in clinics and operating room around the world, today Dr. Salyer continues a groundbreaking forty-year career whose nexus melds cutting-edge medicine with humanitarian aid offered to profoundly unfortunate children. A LIFE THAT MATTERS focuses on the moving stories of the children whose lives have been transformed and their moving personal testaments to how precious their "normalcy" now is. It is these children who inspired Dr. Salyer to found the World Craniofacial Foundation and establish clinics across the globe that now offer hope for good lives to hundreds of poor children in still-developing countries who otherwise would be shunned, locked away, or abandoned. In a voice that's compelling, eloquent, and always impassioned, he issues a call for a new worldwide understanding of the rights of the terribly disfigured, and he encourages readers to be inspired by the lives of these children and to transform our own challenges into triumphs.

A year after Terri Schiavo's controversial death, her parents and siblings share their love and sorrow, their joy and pain, and stunning revelations as they celebrate Terri's life, mourn her death, and tell the whole story of the woman and the battle that captivated millions.

"As the home front and the work front become increasingly integrated in contemporary life, success--or failure--in either has an undeniable effect on the other. But it is possible to keep both areas moving forward in positive ways. In this much anticipated book, A. Roger Merrill and Rebecca Merrill show readers how to navigate the critical relationships between time and money, work and family, to create a harmonious, success-enhancing dynamic between each. Life Matters guides readers in how to spend time and money in ways that translate the personal values and goals that matter most into daily life experience."--Publisher's description.