Author and Bible teacher Kelly Needham reveals how we've been fooled into chasing meaning in all the wrong places, identifies the source of our hunger for the extraordinary, and shows us the steps we can take today to build a purpose-filled reality without turning our lives upside-down. Many of us are exhausted from dreaming big and chasing the extraordinary lives we long for, but when we try embracing the everyday and find meaning in the mundane, we fear we're settling for a boring life. Are we missing something? Kelly Needham has been the keynote speaker, the person folding T-shirts backstage, and the mom dealing with the ups and downs of daily life. By sharing her experiences with both the extraordinary and the humdrum--and wrestling with feelings of disappointment along the way--Needham helps readers discover for themselves the truth that changes everything: we weren't made to do something, but to know Someone. And it's that Someone who can infuse our lives with infinite purpose and meaning. In Purposefooled she explains why we feel like we were made for more and shows us the freeing answer to our longings, the ways modern technology affects our desires and dreams--and how to live free from its pressures and pitfalls, how familiar Bible stories reveal that being a world-changer is more accessible and simpler than we think, why we need to reclaim our imaginations from culture and steward them with eternity in mind, and what it looks like to live a deeply meaningful life today instead of wearing ourselves out trying to reach the next big thing.

For so many of us, our friends are like family members--we lean on them through our highest highs and our lowest lows--but sometimes those friendships don't turn out quite as we hoped. Bible teacher Kelly Needham debunks our world's constricted, narrow view of friendship and casts a richer, more life-giving, biblical vision for friendship. In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham reminds us that we were called to more than halfhearted friendships and lukewarm connections. We need something more stable, secure, and sacred. We were designed for real friendship--but the difficult truth is that too many of us are settling for less. Kelly deconstructs what Scripture says about the gift of friendship and takes a closer look at the distorted view that most of us have instead. As she shares the lessons she's learned from experience, Kelly paints her own glorious vision of what Christian friendship could look like. With hard-fought wisdom, a clear view of Scripture, and a been-there perspective, Friend-ish teaches us how to: Recognize symptoms of idolatry and toxic dependency Boldly ask for what we need from our community of friends Understand and address the problems that arise in friendship--from neediness to discord Recognize when it's time to end an unhealthy friendship Reorient toward the purposeful, loving relationships we all crave that ultimately bring us closer to God Find the friends you need and start to become that friend for others Join Kelly as she challenges you to view your chosen family in a new light, gain a vision of friendship according to Jesus, and finally enjoy friendships as God intended.

"Weaving together stories from sources as wide-ranging as classical literature, social and cognitive psychology, philosophy, art, and video games, Propelled: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead Us to the Good Life makes a lively case for the value of discontent in our lives. It offers novel, detailed, and scientifically informed characterizations of the nature and outcomes of boredom, frustration, and anticipation. The book demonstrates why these three states should not be viewed as obstacles to our goals but as elements of the good life and explicates how they can illuminate our desires and expectations, inform us when we find ourselves stuck in unpleasant and unfulfilling situations, and motivate us to furnish our lives with meaning, interest, and value"--

In today's increasingly competitive and insecure economic environment, we often question the reason for work: why am I doing this? Why is it so hard? And what can I do about it? Work may seem just a means to an end: we do it to earn the money to enjoy life outside the workplace. Here, Timothy Keller argues that God's plan is radically more ambitious: he actually created us to work. We are to work together to make the world a better place, to help each other, and so to find purpose for our lives. Our faith should enhance our work, and our work should develop our faith.With deep insight, Timothy Keller draws on essential and relevant biblical wisdom to address our questions about work. There is grace available if we have taken the wrong attitude, idolising money and using our careers to glorify ourselves rather than God. This book provides the foundations for a work-life balance where we can thrive both personally and professionally. Keller shows how through excellence, integrity, discipline, creativity and passion in the workplace we can impact society for good.Developing a better attitude to work releases us to serve others humbly, to worship God everyday, and leaves us deeply fulfilled.

Little fights with your husband and kids. Unhappiness when things don’t match your version of perfect. Tension, anger, fear—it all begins with a heart that craves control. When your vision of how life should be replaces God’s vision, you doom your quest for security, peace, and joy before it even starts. Thankfully, there is a better way. Join Shannon as she shares what she has discovered about her own control struggles and about God from studying Control Girls in the Bible. Learn how you too can lay down this burden and find rest in surrendering to the One who truly is in control. “In this funny, tender, and truth-telling book, Shannon Popkin peels back the layers of our control problem.” —Erin Davis, author, blogger, and recovering Control Girl “In the style of Liz Curtis Higgs, Control Girl is an easy and entertaining read, yet Shannon Popkin packs a punch where we so need it if we are to be set free from the stressful habit that robs our joy and ruins our relationships!” —Dee Brestin, author of Idol Lies “With personal vulnerability, biblical depth, powerful personal illustrations, and pointed application questions, Shannon Popkin reveals how seven women of the Bible can teach us how to surrender our will to God’s design for our future.” —Carol Kent, speaker and author of Becoming a Woman of Influence “Control Girl is a penetrating look at how selfishness and self-protectiveness wreck lives—and why surrender and trust are God’s life-giving pathways to true freedom and joy.” —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author and Revive Our Hearts teacher and host

The Dead Father is a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical, wise, vain, powerful being who still has hopes for himself--even while he is being dragged by means of a cable toward a mysterious goal. In this extraordinary novel, marked by the imaginative use of language that influenced a generation of fiction writers, Donald Barthelme offered a glimpse into his fictional universe. As Donald Antrim writes in his introduction, "Reading The Dead Father, one has the sense that its author enjoys an almost complete artistic freedom . . . a permission to reshape, misrepresent, or even ignore the world as we find it . . . Laughing along with its author, we escape anxiety and feel alive."