Books

Okay, I’ll be honest. I thought Whatever the Cost would be a quick, entertaining read. No big deal. Instead, I found two more heroes to add to my life.

I loved reading about the Christian home David and Jason Benham came from—how their father poured into them the mindset to “make our theology our biography.” In other words, live what you believe.

These brothers do that.

I found myself laughing out loud several times as I’d read one brother poke fun at the other one. All in good nature, but hilarious.

Their book traces the twins’ lives but focuses on their dreams—such as major league baseball, real estate, an HGTV reality show—all that came within reach and some were pulled from their grasp. As each dream came and went, it tested the twins’ fear of man and motive for the dreams. It provided them an opportunity to glorify God by choosing to live for Him rather than for living for the dream.

The book has many pull quotes that amount to life principles—all great lessons to learn. (These are repeated in an appendix at the end.) My favorite one was this one:

Faithfulness is proved in the ordinary. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and that’s true. But God also uses extraordinary people to do very ordinary things. Faithfulness to God is tested in the fires of the ordinary.

Whatever the Cost reminded me that my faith is more than intellectual and more than even moral. It is something I should live as to model and share with others.