How to Ruin Your Life by 40 - Steve Farrar

To all you young adults, have you ever thought about how your life will look when you turn forty? It’s a long way off, and it is hard to get your mind around the idea of being that age, let alone what you might be doing and how you may be living then. But it’s not that far away. Forty is just around the corner, and if you want to know how to wake up with a fantastic life on that birthday, this book is for you!

How to Ruin Your Life by 40 is a straight up-and-down, no nonsense and compact guide to the Christian race for those who are just standing on the starting line. It addresses the fact that for the first twenty years of your life, your parents made the major decisions for you. However from twenty years old and onwards, you’ll be making the decisions – and they are big ones. Steve Farrar goes deep into all the details of the biggest questions you will face: Who will you marry, what kind of job will you have, how can you know God’s will for your life, how do you handle doubt and temptation, what is your life’s purpose, what if you blow it, and other important questions that concern your life in Christ. The goal of the book is to open its readers’ eyes to the future. Many who begin strong with God in their twenties have fallen before the finish line. This book is a wake-up call by showing you exactly how you can ruin your life by forty.

I found this a compellingly impacting read. It is blunt, and definitely not for the faint-hearted. It will challenge you. It will shock you. It will inspire you and encourage you to rise to the challenge of finishing strong. The statistics of how many people begin strong and yet fail the race by the time they reach forty is definitely a strong wake-up call to stick with our Saviour closer and closer over the course of your life. It includes basic and strong advice for living every day, and for discovering God’s will and destiny for you. It is chock full of wisdom from an author who has seen many walks of life, and does not disguise the facts. I would recommend that everyone twenty years and up read it.

It does however cover a couple of topics that, though true, go a fair bit in depth in regard to the wrong side of the scale. It contains a goodly amount of adult content, mostly found in the “Whom Shall I Marry” chapters. There are many things a single young adult should avoid in this world where immorality is flaunted and extolled, and Farrar does not mince his words on some of the things you should definitely avoid both in the world and in romantic relationships. These few chapters and their contents is what causes me not to recommend it for anyone under the age of eighteen.

On the whole, I would highly recommend this book to all young adults on the brink of adulthood, with a caution for the marriage chapters to anyone younger. If you read this book, prepare to be challenged! The age of forty is a long way down the road, but it is coming up fast. How do you want your life to look when you get there?