Death by Living

Life Is Meant to Be Spent

By: N. D. Wilson

Narrated by: N. D. Wilson

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A poetic portrait of faith, futility, and the joy of this mortal life.

In this astoundingly unique audiobook, best-selling author N. D. Wilson reminds each of us that to truly live, we must recognize that we are dying. Every second we create more of our past - more decisions, more breathing, more love and more loathing, all of it slides by into the gone as we race to grab at more moments, at more memories made and already fading.

We are all authors, creators of our own pasts, of the books that will be our lives. We stare at the future or obsess about the present, but only the past has been set in stone, and we are the ones setting it. When we race across the wet concrete of time without purpose, without goals, without laughter and love and sacrifice, then we fail in our mortal moment. We race toward our inevitable ends without artistry and without beauty.

All of us must pause and breathe. See the past, see your life as the fruit of providence and thousands of personal narratives. What led to you? You did not choose where to set your feet in time. You choose where to set them next.

Then, we must see the future, not just to stare into the fog of distant years but to see the crystal choices as they race toward us in this sharp foreground we call the present. We stand in the now. God says create. Live. Choose. Shape the past. Etch your life in stone, and what you make will be forever.

©2013 Tommy Nelson (P)2013 Canon Press

A must read!

Mr. Wilson skillfully had me laughing through one of the most profound books I have recently read.

An eye-opening view of life, family, and Jesus

Beautiful words beautifully (and occasionally humorously) spoken like these and medicine to my busy soul.

Author is narrator

I've read this book before but hearing the author read it was primo. Because he wrote it, he was able to give words and ideas the nuances he intended. N. D. Wilson challenged me to think harder and remember deeper. For what am I grateful?

Epic Word Stories

I hadn’t read anything by N. D. Wilson before this book. The author uses such epic word pictures that I could hardly help but to see his story. I laughed, I cried. I loved it. I love his outlook and his family and really think that Wilson’s love for life in God on display is needed.

What insight!!!

He that lives in the Secret of the Most High shall lodge on the Shadow of the Almighty!
Psalm 91:1 (my translation from the Hebrew)
Hardly a better description of this book.
If you are living under the dark shadow of godless evolution you are truly wallowing in the greatest poverty.

Life submitted to the perplexities of another man’s faith.

N.D. Wilson’s children’s lit is what first made me pick up his non-fiction. I have found it to be absorbing and meditative to listen to while mothering my kids. It makes me want him to write a book from his wife’s perspective. Strike that maybe he can convince her to write one. This dust mote really would be happy with anything, as God’s sunlight hits me though this book during arsenic hour. Thanks Mr. Wilson.

Phenomenal non-fiction narrative!

It’s hard to put into words the feelings that this book conjured up. Though Nate Wilson seems to have a gift to put things into words that many of us struggle to describe. The style of writing may be challenging for some. But stick with it—I think the effort will pay off. This is one of the top 10 books that has most impacted my soul.

The poetry of life

This is a beautiful picture of our struggle called life. Thanks so much N. D!

Life changing!

Probably the most encouraging book I've ever read in all my life. Thank you, Nathan

Phenomenal

Eye opening. Beautiful. Convicting. Honest. I’m going to share this gem with family and friends; followers of Christ or rebels that I love, though very lacking awe of their Creator, their Author. Thank you, ND Wilson.