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About the Book
"Time Power" by Brian Tracy is a self-help book that offers practical advice on how to manage time effectively and achieve more in both personal and professional life. Tracy provides strategies for setting priorities, eliminating time-wasting activities, and increasing productivity. The book emphasizes the importance of self-discipline, goal-setting, and focusing on high-value tasks to make the most of each day.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis was a prolific Irish writer and scholar best known for his 'Chronicles of Narnia' fantasy series and his pro-Christian texts.
Who Was C.S. Lewis?
Writer and scholar C.S. Lewis taught at Oxford University and became a renowned Christian apologist writer, using logic and philosophy to support the tenets of his faith. He is also known throughout the world as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia fantasy series, which have been adapted into various films for the big and small screens.
Early Life
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, on November 29, 1898, to Flora August Hamilton Lewis and Albert J. Lewis. As a toddler, Clive declared that his name was Jack, which is what he was called by family and friends. He was close to his older brother Warren and the two spent much time together as children.
Lewis was enraptured by fantastic animals and tales of gallantry, and hence the brothers created the imaginary land of Boxen, complete with an intricate history that served them for years. Lewis' mother died when he was 10, and he went on to receive his pre-college education at boarding schools and from a tutor. During WWI, he served with the British army and was sent home after being wounded by shrapnel. He then chose to live as a surrogate son with Janie Moore, the mother of a friend of Lewis' who was killed in the war.
Teaching Career at Oxford and Wartime Broadcasts
Lewis graduated from Oxford University with a focus on literature and classic philosophy, and in 1925 he was awarded a fellowship teaching position at Magdalen College, which was part of the university. There, he also joined the group known as The Inklings, an informal collective of writers and intellectuals who counted among their members Lewis' brother Warren and J.R.R. Tolkien. It was through conversations with group members that Lewis found himself re-embracing Christianity after having become disillusioned with the faith as a youth. He would go on to become renowned for his rich apologist texts, in which he explained his spiritual beliefs via platforms of logic and philosophy.
Lewis began publishing work including Spirits in Bondage in 1919 and the satirical Dymer in 1926. After penning other titles — including The Allegory of Love (1936), for which he won the Hawthornden Prize — he released in 1938 his first sci-fi work, Out of the Silent Planet, the first of a space trilogy which dealt sub-textually with concepts of sin and desire. Later, during WWII, Lewis gave highly popular radio broadcasts on Christianity which won many converts; his speeches were collected in the work Mere Christianity.
Books and Film Legacy
Lewis was a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction who wrote dozens of books over the course of his career. His faith-based arguments as seen in texts like The Great Divorce (1946) and Miracles (1947) are held in high regard by many theologians, scholars and general readers. His satirical fiction novel The Screwtape Letters (1942) is also a beloved classic. Lewis also continued his love affair with classic mythology and narratives during his later years: His book Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (1956) featured the story of Psyche and Cupid. He also penned an autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (1955).
Lewis' landmark series, The Chronicles of Narnia, has seen a number of on-screen iterations, including a cartoon version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe that was released in 1979 and a 1989 film series. Additionally, in 2005, a big-screen adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe hit movie theaters, starring Tilda Swinton as the witch Jadis and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan. Two more Narnia films were brought to theaters as well: Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). A movie version of The Silver Chair was slated to hit theaters in the near future, with filming starting in the winter of 2018.
Lewis' relationship with his wife, Joy, has also been depicted in Shadowlands, presented as a play and two films; one of the film versions was directed by Richard Attenborough and starred Anthony Hopkins as Lewis.
'The Chronicles of Narnia'
During the 1940s, Lewis began writing the seven books that would comprise The Chronicles of Narnia children's series, with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) being the first release. The story focused on four siblings who, during wartime, walk through an armoire to enter the magical world of Narnia, a land resplendent with mythical creatures and talking animals. Throughout the series, a variety of Biblical themes are presented; one prominent character is Aslan, a lion and the ruler of Narnia, who has been interpreted as a Jesus Christ figure. (Lewis would assert that his Narnia stories weren't a direct allegory to the real world.)
Though the book received some negative reviews, it was generally well-received by readers, and the series retained its international popularity over the following decades.
Marriage
In 1954, Lewis joined the faculty of Cambridge University as a literature professor, and in 1956 he married an American English teacher, Joy Gresham, with whom he had been in correspondence. Lewis was full of happiness during the years of their marriage, though Gresham died of cancer in 1960. Lewis grieved deeply for his wife and shared his thoughts in the book A Grief Observed, using a pen name.
Death
In 1963, Lewis resigned from his Cambridge position after experiencing heart trouble. He died on November 22, 1963, in Headington, Oxford.
every day’s a bad day - how ecclesiastes taught me to enjoy life
After decades of ministry, what is one piece of advice I wish I had received as a young woman? Study the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes has shown me the secret of enjoying life, even in the midst of trouble. It has rescued me from disillusionment when labors I thought were fruitful appeared to be for naught. When friends have turned their backs, Ecclesiastes has helped me guard against bitterness. It has cured me of setting my hope on a particular outcome, and protected me from becoming bewildered and disheartened by bad news. In short, Ecclesiastes made me a realist, and yet I’m happier than ever before. This collection of wisdom has become (as it is for J.I. Packer, whose writings introduced me to Ecclesiastes) my favorite book of the Bible, and one I regret not studying sooner. If you get the wisdom here while you are still young, it will prepare you for real life. It clears away false assumptions with which we sometimes read the rest of Scripture. Even if you find Ecclesiastes when you are older, it sure explains a lot. You learn that life didn’t go sideways; it was already crooked (Ecclesiastes 1:15). Ecclesiastes paints an unvarnished picture of real life, but its heavy shadows help you see the light of real joy. Bad Days Are Normal To begin with, Ecclesiastes tells us what life is really like.  “It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with” (Ecclesiastes 1:13). This is the way life really is, for all of us. Because of that first fatal sin, God cursed the ground and imposed hardship on Adam’s offspring (Genesis 3:16–19). The curse has affected all of us who live “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Christians are not exempt. The curse has also infected all of man’s work, “the toil at which he toils” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Life is a burdensome task, a frustrating occupation, a grueling grind. It is an unhappy business. And God made it this way. Our problem is that we don’t really  believe life is an unhappy business. We think if we work hard, we’ll eventually succeed. We imagine suffering is short-term, pain is the exception to the rule, and failure merely the prelude to victory. These illusions leave us blindsided by setbacks, devastated by failure and loss, bewildered by trials, confused by pain. This isn’t the way things were supposed to go!  We talk about having “a bad day” as if it should be one in a thousand, but Ecclesiastes (and really the rest of Scripture, when you read it right side up) tells us that they are all bad. Daily work under the sun is an unhappy business. The sooner we face the fact that we live and work in a sin-cursed world, the more realistic and stable we will be. We will stop expecting things to always get better. We won’t be so surprised when they sometimes get worse. We no longer fear bad news: not because we hope it’s not coming, but because we know it is coming  (Psalm 112:7; Ecclesiastes 12:1). Get Ecclesiastes, and we can learn to meet life’s unhappy business with pluck and humor. We won’t be so quick to doubt God, and we will finally have a settled peace in our heart. As my family reminds each other (with a smile) when faced with some new unhappy business, “That’s Ecclesiastes!” In other words, God can be trusted; he told us this was going to happen. Blessings You Cannot Count Ecclesiastes teaches us how to enjoy life , in the midst of our unhappy business. For while all humankind labors under the effects of the fall, to those God has called according to his purpose, he gives joy . “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. . . . For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy” (Ecclesiastes 2:24, 26). God’s gifts of enjoyment aren’t random; they are from his hand . As it says in James, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). God blesses the Christian’s toil with enjoyment. Every feeling of satisfaction in a made bed, a mopped floor, and an organized closet is from the hand of God . Happiness in a deadline met, a budget balanced, or a report filed comes down from the Father of lights . Pleasure in a delicious meal, and in the dishes all cleaned and put away? You guessed it: from the hand of God . How about the relief of solving a problem, the delight of reading a book to your children, the blessing of easing your husband’s troubles? The fresh breeze through the open windows on carpool morning, the delightful lunch with friends, the sweet feeling of a comfortable bed at night — all of these moments of enjoyment in our work are gifts from the gracious hand of God . When you start to look for God’s gifts of joy, the ratio of troubles to joys becomes astonishingly unbalanced, leaning heavily in favor of joy. As my husband likes to say, good gifts are raining down upon us from the hand of God, every day, all day long. We can find enjoyment in our toil if only we would take the time to see, and give thanks to God. Consider: what is one way you can remind yourself to enjoy the gifts from God’s hand today? You will find that it is a happy  unhappy business that God has given to those who please him. The Final Commendation Finally, Ecclesiastes helps us to see beyond our unhappy business . Even if your friends walk away, your business fails, or you are forced to move to a smaller home, you can persevere, because the final value of your work is not found in this life. “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). In other words, it is not left to us, here and now, to determine the ultimate value of our work. As Jeremiah Burroughs says, we are simply called to “perform the duties of [our] present circumstances,” trusting God who will ultimately judge the fruitfulness of our work and give us our heavenly reward. This means that no matter how much heart you poured into a failed friendship, how much creativity you invested in a business you have to close, or how much effort you put into the home you have to leave, your work for the Lord  is never a net loss. Which is why Paul can exhort us to “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing  that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Life under the sun is brutal, and it shows no signs of getting any easier. Our work is cursed and will often, more likely than not, fail on some human level. But the godly woman can face the future with peace and confidence; she even “laughs at the time to come” (Proverbs 31:25). For the same God who told us that life is hard has told us that he is near (Psalm 34:18). Through faith in Christ we can enjoy God’s fatherly gifts, abound in the work he has called us to, and look forward to the day when — oh, amazing grace! — we receive our commendation from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).
