by: Steve Farrar
(Moody: 2006, 143pp)
Don’t mistake this for a trivial book based on its facetious title. Steve Farrar addresses the 20’ish crowd with refreshing candor and relevance based not only on his own life experience but on his extensive interactions with people who have struggled and/or derailed their lives by the age of forty. What are the common denominators? The groundwork for a successful life at age forty is laid in the decisions that are made in the twenties. Sobering counter-examples are woven through chapters dealing with finding life’s purpose and one’s unique calling, finding and being the right mate, pursuing God’s will and guarding the heart. A ‘blow out’ at age 40 comes about because of errors in judgment and poor choices before then.
A particularly effective chapter (9-‘Honest Struggles’) discusses the critical need to deal honestly with the struggles of life before they erupt into full-blown disaster. The heart cannot be merely ignored or hidden, it must be guarded. “It is the struggle to guard you heart that will determine what happens to you by the time you are forty.”(125)
Farrar concludes with a recommendation he calls one’s “minimum daily requirements”, suggesting that the reading of Scripture is to the health of the heart what adequate nutrition is to the body. “You can’t fight off temptation when you are malnourished.” (138) He suggests a chapter of Proverbs a day, read and put into practice, as a safeguard against ruining your life by forty.
I appreciate Farrar’s obvious passion and insight. His Bible-based counsel is both pointed and practical. This book will be a timely encouragement to young adults and even to those of us who are older, but still intent on living our lives to their fullest potential.
--LS
“The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and after conversion to keep it with him.”—Charles Bridges
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