The Trivial Life

Why does your life and my life often trend toward that which is trivial? Because the default mode of the human heart is bent toward triviality. Unless intentional action is taken, you are always going to lean in the direction of pursuing that which is trivial. But what if there were some kind of work-around, intentional reset, or deliberate action on your part to move away from triviality to a life of meaning and purpose? Here’s the good news—you are not destined to live a life of futility but a life of consequence as you engage the critical aspects of life on a day-to-day basis. God is not a trivial God, nor did He create humans for a life of triviality. He has intervened through the person of Jesus Christ who came to restructure your life from the inside out. Now, through faith in Jesus, you can live a God-consumed life in all that you do to the glory of the Father.

Your life is not a reality show. It's actual reality. But too many of us spend our lives on trivial pursuits--media, money, perpetual youth, and a culture of constant entertainment. We try to avoid the realities of pain, depression, loneliness, and mortality by filling our lives with diversions. Even worse, our churches that might use the reality of pain and suffering to point us to the cross instead dress the gospel up in the world's clothing so that it will seem more "relevant." With pinpoint accuracy, LA club DJ turned pastor Ian DiOrio diagnoses the problem and gives us the cure. Exposing our most common empty attempts to find meaning apart from God, DiOrio points us back to God and exhorts us to find meaning in our identities as followers of Christ, as shapers of culture, and as people who participate in communities of worship.

In a series of essays that explore the notion of what brings significance to our existences, clarifying why we have this longing beyond the present moment and an insatiable dissatisfaction with where we are, scholar Frank Martela tackles the subject of finding meaning in life. With beautiful decorative elements and an engaging design, the book approaches its subject in a readily digestible form. It grapples with some of life’s most pressing questions, like "Is happiness a worthy goal?" and "What is the foundation for meaning in a secular society?" and "Is life an existential void?" yet Martela answers these questions and more in a relaxed, conversational tone and with a wry sense of humor, placing some of life’s greatest philosophical concerns and quandaries into a modern-day context. Martela quickly and concisely gets to the heart of the matter: your place in the world and how to find meaning in life as countless thinkers and philosophers have done before, yet the emphasis here is on what we do with the life we have and how we can make it more meaningful. Part prescriptive and part armchair philosophy book, A Wonderful Life is accessible to everyone, from the well-read scholar to the apprentice as well as anyone curious about how to extract the greatest meaning and sense of purpose from their existence.

’Instagram’s answer to David Sedaris.’ ST STYLE MAGAZINE ’Irresistibly readable.’ DOLLY ALDERTON ’You’ll laugh. You’ll cry.’ LENA DUNHAM A hilarious, smart and incredibly singular debut from Raven Smith, whose exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is totally unique and painfully relatable.

Is Life Too Long? Essays about Life, Death, and other Trivial Matters is a collection of 18 selected essays and medical tales that were first published in The Mining Journal and in The Mining Gazette, the two leading newspapers of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Dr. Shahar Madjar tells the stories of doctors and their patients with empathy, philosophical flavor, and humor.Shahar Madjar, MD, MBA, is an Israeli-born urologist practicing in the remote, cold Upper Peninsula of Michigan (population 300,000). His medical training took him to different parts of the world: Tel Aviv, Israel; London, England; Miami, Florida; Cleveland, Ohio; Jackson, Mississippi; and Stony Brook, New York. Dr. Madjar is a former fellow at the University of Miami, Clinical Associate at the Cleveland Clinic, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Urology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has published more than 50 articles in the medical literature and has presented his research internationally. For the past several years, Dr. Madjar has been writing a popular medical column for The Mining Journal, and for The Mining Gazette, the two leading daily newspaper of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He lives with his wife and three sons in Marquette, Michigan.

Excerpt from Life's Trivial Round Not that it ever went by that name - oh, dear no! It was always the brown parlour, or Mrs. Berrie's room. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.