There's an old saying that, "All truth is God's truth."  I  couldn't agree more.  A similar saying is, "Everything in the Bible is true but not everything that's true is in the Bible."  The point of these sayings surfaced recently for me in the life messages of two very special men.

A long time ago I figured out a secret for successful living and that is this: careful listening.  If someone has lived a lot of years, accomplished the unusual, or endured great suffering, I consider that person someone worthy of listening to.  Through careful listening, I find that the difficult lessons learned by others can become my lessons, too, only without the pain.  In other words, I learn from their experiences.

Over the past month I have "listened" to two different people with a somewhat similar message, Jim Stovall and Randy Pausch.  Despite the similarities of these two men's inspiring messages, one man appears to love God while the other appears not to.  Now, it is important to point out that only God can truly know a person's heart.  However, the watching world can know something. Despite all I don't know, what I can say with certainty is that both men have been given an enormous stage yet only one of them has used it explicitly for the honor of God's name  (Psalm 23).  That being said, I'd like to commend both messages to you because, besides being heart warming and inspiring, both are full of God's truth.

The first man, Jim Stovall, is a best-selling author, Olympic weight lifter, and world renowned motivational speaker.  Having grown blind over the course of several years beginning at age 17, Jim Stovall overcame his challenges with a spirit of great determination and a wonderful zest for life.  In 2001 he published the best-selling novel (now a movie!), The Ultimate Gift.  Merv Bussell recommended it to me, and I recommend it to you.  It's a powerful story on what really matters most in life and covers topics such as hard work, friendship, giving, and attitude.  It's couched in a simple, yet captivating story line and, at around 150 pages, is a fairly quick read.  I found the book very moving and was so encouraged how it pointed toward God without being preachy.

The second man, Dr. Randy Pausch, was recently featured on Oprah and has been on a few national news shows including a fairly lengthy interview by Diane Sawyer.  Dr. Pausch is a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He has weeks to live, is married, and is father to three small children.  Not long ago he presented what CMU refers to as "The Last Lecture."  It's a presentation forum CMU profs give as if it were the last lecture of their careers.  For Dr. Pausch, it was all too real.  His lecture is heart warming and very insightful.  It is well worthy of the hour or so required in front of YouTube.  I found him to be affable, articulate, and extremely engaging given the circumstances.  However, despite his obvious brilliance, I found him tragically shallow. Dr. Pausch's valuable talk is steeped in live-your-dreams-wisdom yet utterly devoid of eternal hope. In fact, he poked fun at the topic as if it were ultimately irrelevant. The most savvy listeners may walk away inspired by Dr. Pausch's courage but will still lie in bed at night frightened about the grave. Now, on the heels of Holy Week, I find my heart aching for this hopeless, remarkable man.

If you're willing, take the time to avail yourself of the "life messages" of both of these men.  Each offers a great deal of wisdom that I'm sure will add depth and perspective to your own life.  And, join me in praying for Dr. Pausch while there is yet time. Our Resurrection Hope could well be his.