Pat Williams - What Are You Living For?: Investing Your Life in What Matters Most

Pat Williamss new book points the way to a life filled with meaning and purpose. Ill be recommending What Are You Living For? to many people for years to come.

GARY L. BAUER

Chairman, Campaign for Working Families President, American Values

What a great book! In a time when someone has changed the price tags on whats valuable and what isnt, it is so refreshing to get back to the basics of what life is really about and what really matters. That would be enough, but to say it in such a refreshing manner is a gift. Read this book, and you will owe me for having recommended it to you.

STEVE BROWN

President, Key Life Network

When Pat Williams writes, trust me, you want to listen. What Are You Living For? is a very powerful book, and I found Pats counsel extremely applicable in my personal battle against the common temptations of this fallen world. It wont be long before I reread it.

PAUL BYRD

Pitcher, Cleveland Indians

Few men in America are learners and leaders like Pat Williams. Pat is committed to helping people invest their lives in what really matters. His family life and career model what really matter. If you are ready to grow, be stretched and pursue the true priorities of life, read this book. The world needs what Pat Williams has lived and written about.

DR. RONNIE W. FLOYD

Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Springdale, Arkansas

If your life lacks meaning, significance and direction, you have picked up the right book. Pat Williams has been where you are and knows how you feel. In these pages, he points the way to a life filled with purpose and hope.

BILL GAITHER

Gospel singer and songwriter

When Pat Williams writes it, I read it! Once again, this splendid communicator describes life at its best and gives us vivid illustrations as to how we can live abundantly and effectively for Christ.

JACK GRAHAM

Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas

Pat Williams has done it again! Hes written a remarkable book that makes one stop and remember what is really important in lifeand what isnt!

GOVERNOR MIKE HUCKABEE

2008 Republican presidential candidate

What Are You Living For? reminds me so much of the apostle Pauls exhortation to young Timothy when he told him what to pursueand what not to pursue. Pat Williams has done us a favor in talking about the things we chase after that are equivalent to grasping the wind in our hands, while showing us the things we should pursue that would not only be worth living for but also worth dying for. Read and be blessed!

JOHNNY HUNT

Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia

After a lifetime of leadership in business and sports, Pat Williams has written a book about character and faith in Jesus Christ that is suffused with wisdom and wit. What Are You Living For? provides powerful lessons, drawn from real life, about real heroes and stunning failures. Throughout it all, Pat leads the reader toward lifes greatest laurel and deepest magic: a profound relationship with the God who made us.

TONY PERKINS

President, Family Research Council

What Are You Living For? will cause you to think deeply about every facet of your life. Do not rush through this important book. Read it, reflect on it, and then apply the results.

JIM RYUN

United States Congressman and three-time Olympian

The great thing about this book is that it teaches you what matters most about living. Pat Williams asks the right questions about life so that you can live the right answers before its too late.

DR. DAVID UTH

Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Orlando, Florida

As a successful leader in the powerful world of professional basketball, Pat Williams has unique insight to address the question, What Are You Living For? He knows the game of fortune, fame and pleasure and how it leaves its players empty-handed when they lack deeper reasons for living. Pats winsome influence has been a great encouragement to many, and I know his book will offer you lasting direction and hope.

RAVI ZACHARIAS

Author and speaker

WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR?

2008 Pat Williams and Jim Denney

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Revell edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2613-6

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

KJVKing James Version. Authorized King James Version.

NKJVScripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NLTScripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

In memory of Dr. Wendell Kempton,
friend and mentor,
and a true role model of character,
influence, parenting and faith

What are you living for?

Great question.

Youve got to admire someone who asks the tough questions. And thats what Pat Williams does in this book.

What are you living for?

Can you think of a more important question than that? Whether you are young or old and no matter where you live or what you do in life, you need to deal head-on with this question. Your answer will determine whether you are living a life of meaning and significance, or just marking time until you die.

You might say, Well, Im young, Im building my career, and Im enjoying life. Im doing fine. Dont bother me with philosophical questions.

Life is short. It passes in the blink of an eye. You think youve got all the time in the world, and then suddenly you turn around and wonder where your life went. If you think your goals of a good career and a lot of shiny possessions will give your life meaning, youre destined for disappointment.

If youre only living to make a reputation for yourself, or to acquire wealth and status, or to enjoy all of lifes pleasuresthen you are wasting the gift of your one and only irreplaceable life.

Life is uncertain. You could be eating all the right foods, getting plenty of exercise, staying trim and fit, and tomorrow you might be diagnosed with a terminal illness or be killed on the freeway. Or the economy could go south, taking your brilliant career, your nice house and your expensive car along with it.

If everything youre living for turns to dust and ashes, what then?

You cant wait until someday to find your purpose in life. You cant wait until tragedy strikes before you get serious about living a life of significance. Its time for you to pause, turn these pages, and consider the question,