The only secret to success, wealth and happiness is that there are no secrets. Everything you need to know and do is right in front of you if you will only see it and use it. This book will speed your journey to inner peace, balance and success.
For over forty years as an author, speaker, and student in life, I have been searching for what I believe is God’s purpose for me. This search has had its fair share of failures, disappointments, achievements, and adventures, but in the process of asking, there were always more questions than answers. Some of these questions will never be answered in this lifetime; many will not be answered to my satisfaction, and a few I know I don’t really want answers to.
This book is a condensation of a life of reading, learning, growing, asking, studying, and often resisting much of what I was learning. The message contained in this small, yet powerful booklet is a distillation of what I have learned from some of the greatest minds, both past and present. However, just because I may have learned it is not a testimony to my use of it.
God has granted me the privilege of thought and contemplation, and it is now my task as I proceed down the path of the rest of my life to use the gift of knowledge He has given me for His purpose during my remaining days.
If you, too, are searching for more—more peace, happiness, love, acceptance, success, wealth, or to know the meaning of your life—the path ahead is simple, but not easy. There are many places you can look for the answers to your life: to your Creator, environment, career, spouse, life teachers, mentors, friends, family, or deep inside yourself. However, there is only one source that can satisfy all of your questions, longing, and searching, and I know that you know what that source is, whether you admit it or not, resist it, or fail to recognize it when it appears.
God is the only answer to all of your life’s challenges, desires, needs, and problems, and until you are willing and able to come to that conclusion in your own heart and mind, you will never find the true peace which you know you desire and deserve.
If this booklet helps you come to many of the same conclusions that I have during my life, why not share it with friends as well as strangers who cross your path.
My prayer for you is that it doesn’t take you quite as long to discover the truths contained in this booklet as it has taken me.
Your path ahead will be filled with joy or struggle, pain or adventure, love or fear, success or failure, and adventure or boredom. This path that you are on will provide you with many lessons and numerous teachers, but please keep in mind that each of these—whether negative or positive—is a gift from God to help you come to know that He is your only salvation and to help you live the life that He wants you to live and you were meant to experience.
Excerpt
The prize has no economic value, and once you win it, no one can take it from you. And you can’t buy it, you must earn it. The prize is worth whatever price you have to pay, but you must be willing to pay it. You can’t win the prize if you don’t pay the price. That’s just the way life is.
Many people feel or believe they are worthy of the prize, even though they have not yet paid the price. If this were the only requirement, it would be unnecessary to even have to pay a price. Everyone would win the prize just by showing up. Just being born would be enough to win the prize.
Unfortunately, if this were the case, the prize would have no value, and people would treat it with disrespect and scorn.
What gives the prize its value is not winning the prize itself or the value that other people put on the prize, but the price that each of us must pay to earn the right to win it and then enjoy it. I must admit that at times in my life, I thought I wanted the prize without paying the price. On one occasion, God chose to give me the prize without the payment of the price. In the end, I lost the prize. In fact, while I had it, it was filled with emptiness, envy, jealousy, sadness, and resentment.
The prize is not about race, gender, color, age, education, or cultural background. Everyone can win the prize.
So, our role is simple: Pay the price and if you win the prize, rejoice and be thankful; and if you don’t get the prize, rejoice and be thankful. Sound like a paradox? It is. God makes the rules. He determines the price and when you have earned the prize. What is the prize? It is spelled out clearly in the following pages.
This exceptional book, Celebrating the Gift of Being Alive, has the perfect thoughts and words for birthdays, graduations, engagements, marriages, and any life celebration or family tradition.
