The Good Life
This was the first book published by the artist Trip Lee. It was given to me as a birthday gift by a close friend who knew how much I loved his music. To no ones surprise, I loved the book as well. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for 3 years now, and as I skimmed through it in order to type up this review, my favorite lines jumped back at me. Have you ever read a good book so quickly that you feel like going back and reading it again in case you missed something? That how I feel about this book. Each chapter addressed a specific topic on the different aspects of living 'The Good Life'. I'm currently going through a season where I doubt that I can truly live a good life within the Christian boundaries. My christian life has been pretty boring compared to the life of nonbelievers I see out here having a good time. I've been questioning Gods ability to truly satisfy me, and I'm a little irritated as I think about my long list of unmet desires. But in this book, Trip addresses all my questions in an organized manner that is backed up by scripture. He also gives insight on the lyrics to a few of his songs from The Good Life album. I highly recommend you check it out cause it's helping me stay focused on what really matters.
Here are some of my favorite topics that he wrote about:
What He Desires
He has given countless good gifts to enjoy. But why does God have so many rules if he wants us to live the good life? It's because His good gifts can only be rightly enjoyed in their proper context. When we rip them away from the context they were made to function in, we corrupt them. - pg. 34
“The good life doesn’t mean we get everything we want. The good life is believing in God even when we don’t get what we want”
Enjoying Gods gifts
When we experience the pleasures of this world, we are tempted to latch on to them in an unhealthy way. We'll enjoy them and our hearts will want to make them ultimate. But we have to fight that urge. When we make those pleasures ultimate, we are believing the lie that God cannot satisfy us as much as they can. - pg. 133
Success
If we're going to live by faith in a good God, we have to rethink our culture's ideas about success and shape our goals around His. Many of us think of success as being important or maybe being at the top of whatever field we work in...He hasn't called us to worldly success; He called us to faithfulness. - pg. 116
Open hand
Our culture teaches us that we can do whatever we want if we just put our minds to it. They say if you work hard enough, you will achieve it. But that's not biblically true. Listen to what the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain”. (Psalm 127:1). Some of us will work harder than everyone else and never reach those dreams...Not every dream is from God, and He doesn't owe it to us to make any of them happen....When God doesn't answer our prayers, we shouldn't assume He's unfaithful. We should trust His wisdom. - pg. 119-120
Lies
We've been told by our culture that the most important thing in life is the stuff we acquire...American culture is dripping with staunch materialism...We've bought unto the lie that we are what we have, so we spend our lives chasing it. - pg. 103
True Faith
But unless God has promised something to us, we can't lay claim to it or be mad at God when He doesn't deliver. Faith isn't believing God will give you everything you want. Faith is believing that God will do as He promised. - Pg. 141
