The Cost of Winning: Coming in First Across the Wrong Finish Line

This short non-fiction book by Dean Hughes caught my attention at Seagull Books. From the first chapter:

"I was teaching an adult Sunday School class some years back, and I asked the students to describe a 'good Mormon.' I got answers that had to do with compliance: church attendance, adherence to the laws of tithing and the Word of Wisdom, willingness to serve in Church callings, and so forth. But then I asked, 'What comes to mind when I say, "Good Christian"?'

"I got different answers.

"People talked about service, kindness, love, and looking after one’s neighbor. It’s worried me ever since to think that the answers differed as much as they did. It seems to me that the question for us should always be, 'Am I a follower of Christ? And if I am, how should I live?'” (Dean Hughes, The Cost of Winning: Coming in First Across the Wrong Finish Line, pp. 5-6.)

What's more important? Making the numbers look good or reaching out to those in need? Which should be our main concern?

37....Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets

 

Have Book, Will .....

Being a partial record of the many books I have read, am now reading, or plan to read. Also, a source of recommendations for those who are at a loss for something good to read.

I admit it. I am a confirmed bookworm. Long before I ever donned the dyed green bookworm costume that my mother created from a sheet (I won a Halloween contest with it), I was addicted to reading. Back then, I would rather find a cozy chair and read than do just about anything. It was, is, and always will be my escape from reality.

I read just about anything I can find, whenever, wherever, whatever. That includes cereal boxes at breakfast, shampoo bottles in the shower, billboards on the freeway, bumper stickers on passing vehicles (sometimes I regret reading those), and of course, books. Lots and lots of books.

Lately I've been focused on more non-fiction books, like The Gift of Fear and Darwin's Black Box. Last summer it was fantasy by Brandon Sanderson (The Mistborn series) and Carol Berg (the Transformation series).

I rarely go anywhere without a book if I think there's even the remotest possibility that I might have some time on my hands.