It's Not About Me - Rescue From the Life We Thought Would Make Us Happy

"Sweet spot." Golfers understand the term. So do tennis players. Ever swung a baseball bat or paddled a Ping-Pong ball? If so, you know the oh-so-nice feel of the sweet spot. Life in the sweet spot rolls like the downhill side of a downwind bike ride. But you don't have to swing a bat or a club to know this. What engineers give sports equipment, God gave you.A zone, a region, a life precinct in which you were made to dwell. He tailored the curves of your life to fit an empty space in his jigsaw puzzle. And life makes sweet sense when you find your spot.

But if you're like 87 percent of workers, you haven't found it. You don't find meaning in your work--or you're one of the 80 percent who don't believe their talents are used. What can you do? You're suffering from the common life, and you desperately need a cure.

Best-selling author Max Lucado has found it. In Cure for the Common Life he offers practical tools for exploring and identifying your own uniqueness, motivation to put your strengths to work, and the perfect prescription for finding and living in your sweet spot for the rest of your life.

It's what happens when obstacles prevent you from seeing what God has done for you ...

He still moves stones.

People with questions. The Bible is absolutely full of them. A crook on a cross. A wild man in a cemetery. A five-time divorcée. A despondent cripple. A grieving sister. A father at the end of his rope.

Why are these portraits in the Bible? So we can look back in amazement at what Jesus did? No ... these aren't just Sunday school stories. They are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question. "Does God care when I hurt?"

On every page of this powerfully moving book, Max Lucado reminds us, the God who spoke to Moses at the burning bush still speaks loudly to you today. The God who forgave King David still offers you forgiveness. The God who helped men and women in ages past still comes into your world, and he comes to do what you can't, to move the stone away so you can see his answer.

Dear Friend,

May I share a story that is very dear to my heart?

It's a story of hillbillies and simple folk, net casters and tax collectors. A story of a movement that exploded like a just-opened fire hydrant out of Jerusalem and spilled into the ends of the earth: into the streets of Paris, the districts of Rome, and the ports of Athens, Istanbul, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires. A story so mighty, controversial, head spinning, and life changing that two millennia later we wonder:

Might it happen again?

Heaven knows we hope so. These are devastating times: 1.75 billions people are desperately poor; one billion are hungry. Lonely hearts indwell our neighborhoods and attend our schools. In the midst of it all, here we stand: you, me, and our one-of-a-kind lives. We are given a choice ... an opportunity to make a big difference during a difficult time. What if we did? What if we rocked the world with hope?

Worth a try, don't you think?

- Max Lucado

One hundred percent of the author's royalties from Outlive Your Life products will benefit children and families through World Vision and other ministries of faith-based compassion.

Grace.

We talk as though we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a grace note. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the word for hospitals, baby girls, kings, and premeal prayers. We talk as though we know what grace means.

But do we really understand it? Have we settled for wimpy grace? It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demands a response. When asked, “Do you believe in grace?” who could say no?

Max Lucado asks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by the nape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace?

God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. From insecure to God secure. From regret riddled to better-because-of-it. From afraid to die to ready to fly.

Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.

Let’s make certain grace gets you. 

Endorsements for GRACE:

“God’s grace—His unconditionally loving, unmerited favor—is sometimes difficult for people to grasp, even though each one of us is in desperate need of it. But in Max Lucado’s new book, GRACE, it is completely embraceable and understandable. Through Lucado’s characteristic narrative style and profound biblical understanding, we learn that God’s grace is truly much more than we deserve and greater than we imagine. “ --Dr. Charles F. Stanley 

“Max Lucado has blended his creative writing style with honesty about how he has experienced God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness in his own times of failure and despair.  You will find comfort as Max shines the light of the Word of God revealing that Jesus Christ is truly the only hope that brings everlasting peace.” --Franklin Graham, President and CEO, Samaritan’s Purse, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

“Reading Max Lucado on grace is like hearing Warren Buffett on money or Julia Child on food—it’s a subject he spent a lifetime falling in love with.” --John Ortberg, pastor and author, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church 

“Few writers are better than Max Lucado, no subject is better than God’s grace." --Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven and If God is Good

"Max gives us encouragement, hope and a needed reminder that the grace we all possess as followers of Jesus should empower us to move mountains, vs simply settling for pushing wimpy molehills." --Brad Lomenick, President and Executive Director, Catalyst

“Max offers up a biblical vision of God’s grace that comes drenched in sweat and with a set of six-pack abs; a life-defining newness and relationship-refining kindness straight from the heart of God.” --Tim Kimmel, author of Grace Based Parenting

"Some writers aim for the mind, others for the heart and a small number for the soul. With his latest book, 'Grace,' Max Lucado hits the trifecta, touching on all three." -- Cal Thomas, Syndicated and USA Today Columnist and Fox News Contributor

“If you love the writings of Max Lucado, this will probably become your favorite.” -- Stephen Arterburn, Founder and Chairman of New Life Ministries, host of “New Life Live!” and best selling author

“I can think of no more needed message for weary people everywhere, and no better writer than Max Lucado to paint so gloriously the hope that "Christ in you" affords.” --Louie Giglio, creator of Passion Conferences and pastor, Passion City Church

Water for the thirsty, rest for the weary, and a friend for the lonely.

Three books in one, bringing you closer to the Savior.

In Come Thirsty, Max Lucado encourages you to visit the well and drink deeply, to receive Christ's work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, and his lordship over your life, and his unending, unfailing love.

Using the illustration of weary travelers in Traveling Light, Lucado invites us to release the burdens of our excess baggage that we were never intended to bear--with the Twenty-third Psalm as our guide.

In Next Door Savior, master storyteller Max Lucado presents the life of Jesus Christ in stunning contrast, revealing the irresistible human qualities and the undeniably divine characteristics of Jesus. Lucado describes, as only he can, a Savior who is as approachable as a next-door neighbor, yet mighty enough to save humanity.

You know your Goliath. You recognize his walk, the thunder of his voice.

He taunts you with bills you can't pay, people you can't please, habits you can't break, failures you can't forget, and a future you can't face. But just like David, you can face your giant, even if you aren't the strongest, the smartest, the best equipped, of the holiest.

David. You could read his story and wonder what God saw in him. His life has little to offer the unstained, straight-A saint. He fell as often as he stood, stumbled as often as he conquered. But for those who know the sound of Goliath, David gives this reminder:

Focus on giants -- you stumble; focus on God -- your giants tumble.

If you're ready to face your giants, let his story inspire you. The same God who helped him will help you.