This is a tiny but punchy book that has really encouraged me to keep on keeping on, doing ordinary things for God faithfully.
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” 1 Thess 4:11a
“Ambition. A quiet life. These two things look like antonyms in a world where dreams are only ever allowed to be big.”
“Paul’s advice was not to imitate any effective strategies or any othe rmetric of worldly success, but rather to focus our lives primarily on smaller things tha the says matter most.”
Seth Lewis hits the nail on the head when he says that whatever we are working towards in our bid to lead a purposeful life (in establishing a family, career accomplishments, friendships), all these are good gifts. However, like cut flowers in a vase, they will eventually fade and wilt, because they are not plugged into the source – God, who is the tree of life with living roots.
“The good news is that you don’t have to try to use your dreams to make youself big enough or good enough to love, or somehow create your own value and meaning. You can find all this in Jesus, and when you come to him, everything changes – including your dreams.”
“If you achieve dreams that the world considers big, make sure that they are built on dreams that the world considers small. Let your dreams – whatever their size – be born in the quiet, close fellowship with your Creator.”
My favourite story in this book was that of 61 year old Cliff Young, the sheep farmer who won the 875km Sydney-Melbourne ultramarathon by 10 hours simply because he just kept shuffling on, though he only had work boots and none of the professional equipment or training that the other younger ultra-marathoners had.
And this. “Competition for personal glory in the body of Christ is like an auto-immune disease where the body of Christ fights against itself. We have better things to do.”
9/10 stars. Awesome book.
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