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Author: Max Lucado
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About the Book

"Outlive Your Life" by Max Lucado is a book that challenges readers to make a lasting impact on the world by embodying the teachings of Jesus and living a life of purpose, compassion, and generosity. Through inspiring stories and practical advice, Lucado encourages readers to use their unique talents and resources to make a difference in the lives of others and leave a positive legacy that outlives them.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians. Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At age 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervour to his faith. Upon dreaming that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent. The best known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter headed “The Voice of the Irish.” As he read it, he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. “Deeply moved,” he says, “I could read no more.” Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education, he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion, he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus. Careful to deal fairly with the non-Christian Irish, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his “laborious episcopate” was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped “idols and unclean things” had become “the people of God.” The phenomenal success of Patrick’s mission is not, however, the full measure of his personality. Since his writings have come to be better understood, it is increasingly recognized that, despite their occasional incoherence, they mirror a truth and a simplicity of the rarest quality. Not since St. Augustine of Hippo had any religious diarist bared his inmost soul as Patrick did in his writings. As D.A. Binchy, the most austerely critical of Patrician (i.e., of Patrick) scholars, put it, “The moral and spiritual greatness of the man shines through every stumbling sentence of his ‘rustic’ Latin.” It is not possible to say with any assurance when Patrick was born. There are, however, a number of pointers to his missionary career having lain within the second half of the 5th century. In the Coroticus letter, his mention of the Franks as still “heathen” indicates that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franks’ irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse. Patrick, who speaks of himself as having evangelized heathen Ireland, is not to be confused with Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine I in 431 as “first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.” Toward the end of his life, he retired to Saul, where he may have written his Confessio. It is said that an angel conveyed to him that he was to die at Saul, the site of his first church, despite his wishes to die within the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland. His last rites were administered by St. Tussach (also spelled Tassach or Tassac). Legends Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared. Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

what would judas do

Wednesday plants the suicidal seed of Holy Week: betrayal. Before there could be a Garden, there had to be a seed — the inception of insurrection. Jesus gloriously paid for our redemption with blood, but his blood was murderously bought with money. The promised Savior sold for just thirty pieces of silver. Jesus had taught his disciples, including the one who would betray him, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). No one. Not Judas. Not you or me. The Love of Money Murdered Jesus The Pharisees loved money (Luke 16:14), feared men (Matthew 26:5), and hated Jesus (Matthew 26:4). That formula may be lived out before you more than you realize. The love of money often looks merely practical. The fear of men can hide behind masks. But the Bible is clear: If you love money and fear men, you cannot love God or escape hell (Luke 16:13; John 5:44) — and you become a card-carrying member of the crowd who crucified the Author of life (Acts 3:15). The cross — that horrifying drama of hatred — was only a symptom of the Pharisees’ craving for money, approval, and power. It was as if they bought a billboard to advertise their love for money, and set on a hill for all to see. But they would never do something so obvious. What would the people say? They “feared the people” (Luke 22:2). In fact, the people’s love for Jesus was half the reason the religious leaders hated him so much. The authorities were cowards with cravings. They had to find a way to kill him quietly (Matthew 26:3–5). They had to find a way to murder an innocent man without losing any esteem or influence. First they needed an insider — someone close enough to Jesus to betray him, but far enough from Jesus to betray him. In other words, they needed a perp dressed like the Pope. “Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?’” (Matthew 26:14–15). “When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money” (Mark 14:11). They found their man, someone who loved money as much as they did, someone who was willing to offend and ostracize even his closest friends for a pay day. The market had opened against the Messiah, and Judas was there to profit. As Randy Alcorn writes, “Satan works on the assumption that every person has a price. Often, unfortunately, he is right. Many people are willing to surrender themselves and their principles to whatever god will bring them the greatest short-term profit” ( Money, Possessions, and Eternity , 41). Judas sold out the Savior, and for just thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). The Love of Money Makes a Name If you love money — value money and what it can buy above all else — you cannot love God. You will hate him, maybe quietly or privately and hypocritically — but you will hate him. And that hatred will mark you and follow you everywhere. That kind of divine rejection and betrayal renames a person. It defines you. For example, look at how Judas is talked about in the Gospels. “ . . . Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him .” (Matthew 10:4) “Judas, who would betray him , answered, ‘Is it I, Rabbi?’ He said to him, ‘You have said so.’” (Matthew 26:25) “ . . . and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him .” (Mark 3:19) “ . . . and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor .” (Luke 6:16) “But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples ( he who was about to betray him ), said,” (John 12:4). “He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him .” (John 6:71) “Judas, who betrayed him , was standing with them.” (John 18:5) Instead of being a faithful disciple guiding people to follow Jesus, he “became a guide to those who arrested Jesus” (Acts 1:16). What will be the testimony of your life — of your spending and giving? Will it be clear to others that you used what God had given you to lead others to his Son, or will it be plain that you surrendered to the gods of the material and drew people away from Jesus? Did you guide the blind to sight, or help blind them to death? The Love of Money Leads to Regret Judas’s affair did not fair so well for him. “Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders” (Matthew 27:3). Drowning in shame, he screamed for a refund. Confronted with the horror of his exchange, the money had lost its allure. What have I done?! What awful trade have I made?! Take it all back, and give me Jesus! There was no turning back for Judas, no return policy on this rejection. He killed himself in the overwhelming waves of regret and remorse (Matthew 27:5). However, there is time to turn back for you. Luke quotes Jesus for the greedy today, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). When life begins to seem like one long mission to make more money, someone is lying to you. Wake up and give back the silver before it crucifies you. John Piper writes, “When you are dying . . . money walks away from you. It abandons you. It will not go with you to help you. And nothing that you bought with it can go either” ( Money, Sex, and Power , 65). And again later, “[The love of money] substitutes a dollar bill for the divine” (71). The love of money leads only to regret and loss. Reject Judas, Receive Joy Ask yourself what Judas would do in your situation. How would he feel about your current income, shopping habits, and retirement savings? How uneasy would he be about your generosity? Does your budget begin to look like his, just two thousand years later? Refuse to follow Judas in his betrayal, and reject all that money promises to be in place of God. Find your security and satisfaction in something supernatural, eternal, and free. Piper goes on, reflecting on Paul in Philippians 4:11–13, When the stock market goes up or he gets a bonus, he says, I find Jesus more precious and valuable and satisfying than my increasing money . And when the stock market goes down or he faces a pay cut, he says, I find Jesus more precious and valuable and satisfying than all that I have lost . The glory and beauty and worth and preciousness of Christ is the secret of contentment that keeps money from controlling him. ( Money, Sex, and Power , 65) When our joy is no longer in our money but rather is in God . . . our money becomes the visible extension of joy in God, directed toward others. . . . Treasuring God above all things turns money into the currency of worship and love. ( Money, Sex, and Power , 123) Instead of surrendering to our cravings for more, let’s pour ourselves, every penny, into telling the world God is our treasure — right now, later in retirement, and forever in eternity — and spending whatever it takes to bring others into that joy and security with us.