Outlive Your Life -- You Were Made to Make a Difference
Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson publisher, hardcover, 240 pages

Did you ever think you would like to "outlive" your life? Did you ever think, that in your last days, you would like to know that somewhere, there were people who were better off because you had lived? And in those last days, did you ever hope that you would have satisfaction about how you had lived your life? Max Lucado explains in this book that we each have been given our one life, in these particular times, and we can use that life to make a difference.

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 we have been given this one 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. Read this book & you will be given a guide and see examples of how to do it.

Max Lucado is a Minister of Preaching at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, where he has served since 1988. Max Lucado loves words – written, spoken – it does not matter. He loves to craft sentences that are memorable, inspiring and hopefully life-changing. In almost 25 years of writing, more than 80 million books filled with his words have been sold.

Simple Prayers for Complicated Lives
Jennifer M. Phillips, Seabury Books, paperback, 114 pages

Simple prayers often elude us as we try to pray in and through the joys, anxieties, and complications of our lives. While traditional prayers are available for waking, table graces, and preparing for sleep, this collection goes much further -- from booting up the computer and driving the car to pregnancy, childbirth, and sending out a child in shared custody. Phillips is equally at home with both lament and thanksgiving: prayers for a stillborn infant or recovery from a robbery or divorce mingle with thanks for healing, for the peace of a home, for the ordinary ticking of a clock. These are prayers to be taped on the bathroom mirror or the dashboard, tucked behind the salt shaker, or slid under the computer.

Jennifer M. Phillips is an Episcopal priest, published poet, liturgist, and hospital chaplain. She is the vicar of St. Augustine’s Church on the University of Rhode Island campus in Kingston, and the author of two books and a column for Episcopal Life. Her prayers appear in supplemental liturgical materials for the Episcopal Church.