Stopping the Tragic Loss of Life Caused by Purposeless Living

By Danny Ray Christian

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche

A great tragedy of modern-day life is the fact that we seek a how to live before we have a why to live and we teach our children how to live without helping them first discover a why to live for, not knowing that when they and we have a why, the how will take care of itself. This book is my attempt to help people, especially the young, to discover the why of their existence. Arming people with the answer to this question is the most effective way I know to help stop the senseless violence that takes place in our society all too often. At the same time, I want to address the argument that life is so hard for our young black men that is why they sell drugs and commit other crimes as it is the only means they have to feed themselves and their families. As bad as things are for many of our inner-city youth, I dont believe they need less challenges but more, for the simple reason that it is obvious that the ones they currently face are not succeeding in drawing the best and champions out of them. And this is ultimately what every challenge should do no matter how tough it is or poor you are. Kids are not selling drugs on the corner because life is hard for them; they are doing so because that is the easiest thing for them to do versus going out and working a steady job eight hours a day. So dont tell me how unfortunate kids are today to have so many challenges. When I was growing up, I was told that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. What has taken the place of this saying in this generation is the belief that desperate times call for desperate measures. Desperate measures are not always the wisest choice of actions. What the youth today is doing to survive is desperate, but it is not truly necessary; in most cases, it is just convenient.

Danny has been certified by Toastmasters International as a competent public speaker (1991 East Moline). He received his GED from the Chicago City Colleges (1981) and obtained a certificate in graphic arts from Southeastern Illinois College (1987). He is a former member of the Pan-African Revolutionary Socialist Party. He spent twenty years in prison and ten in the Elgin Mental Health Center. While in the hospital, he wrote over eight hundred poems, three books of daily meditations, and numerous speeches and Afrocentric anecdotes. He also acted as a mentor for younger consumers while there, leading his own peer-support groups and chairing GROW for four years (200307). He has been clean of all illegal drugs for fourteen years.

Since getting out of the hospital in 2013, he has written seven books: A Ten Part Book to Maximizing Your Potential; Life Poems; Three-Part Process to Breaking the Recidivism Cycle; Young, Gifted and Black; Redeeming the Time; Let Them Eat Cake; and The 50 Most Positive Things I Know About African Americans.

Dannys mission is to provide others who have struggled with addictions and mental illnesses and a history of going back and forth to prison with a better image of what they can be with the use of faith and a meaningful life purpose as a guide.

You can contact him for workshops and testimonies at [e-mail].

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543467475

Danny Ray Christian

Danny has been certified by Toastmasters International as a Competent Public Speaker (1991 East Moline). He received his GED from the Chicago City Colleges (1981) and obtained a certificate in Graphic Arts from Southeastern Illinois College (1987). He is a former member of the Pan-African Revolutionary Socialist Party. He spent twenty years in prison and ten in Elgin Mental Health Center. While in the hospital he wrote over eight-hundred poems, three books of daily meditations, and numerous speeches and Afro-centric anecdotes. He also acted as a mentor for younger consumers while there, leading his own peer-support groups and chairing GROW for four years (2003-07). You can contact him about appearing at your venue at [e-mail]

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Copyright © 2017 by Danny Ray Christian.

ISBN:                  Softcover                        978-1-5434-6746-8

                            eBook                             978-1-5434-6747-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 11/15/2017

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Objective

Chapter 1   Are You A Living Victim Of An Unlived And Purposeless Life?

Chapter 2   Start To Live Your Life On Purpose And For A Purpose

Chapter 3   Become Passionate About Life

Chapter 4   Become Uncomfortable With The Status Quo

Chapter 5   Daily Activities To Help Realize Your Purpose

Chapter 6   Focus Questions

Conclusion

Dedication

To all those who are doing their best to live their lives on purpose and for a purpose amid the danger of living in some the most violent and impoverished places in America and the world.

Preface

Because life is going to go on with or without you, you might as well name your poison and drink it, in other words, follow your dream. I wrote this book because I believe the greatest crisis of modern times is the lack of purpose among too many people’s lives today. I believe that a part of my own purpose is to help others find their purpose. Therefore I write these words to inform you that you can’t begin to realize your full potential until you have adopted a purpose for your life which makes it substantial to the development and evolution of the world.

We all want to eventually know our purpose that is why we ask the question, Why are we here? The discovery of our purpose is the ultimate quest of mankind. Life comes with no instruction manual, thus we are left to learn its ropes on the fly, sort to speak. I am of the belief that purpose comes to all of our lives as we allow ourselves to be carried along on its voyage to wherever God has set its course.

Inevitably if your life is to have purpose it must first have direction. That is where many of our youth are falling into the trap of leading purposeless lives, because they are living without direction, and as the old saying goes, If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. So my hope is that this book will help both the young and old find direction for their life in lieu of them finding purpose for their life. If I can succeed in helping just one person discovers their purpose and gains a guide for their life, then my own life will have served a worthy purpose.

As you read these few pages I hope that you will have the opportunity to gain some insight on where you should be heading in life as the new day present you with the chance to either be a bystander to life’s parade or a participant in it. I implore you with the greatest concern that you don’t allow another day of your life to go by without you living it on purpose and for a purpose; meaning that you take this opportunity to make your voice heard in the musical of life.

Introduction

More tragic than the senseless murders that take place in our society every day is the reality that millions of people are living tragically purposeless lives which drive them to use drugs, kill others and themselves through all kind of acts of violence. We all cry and wring our heads over the daily occurrences of violence both within our homes, cities and world. But recently as I sat watching news of the latest mass shooting in a Texas, I couldn’t help asking myself, Why don’t we grieve over the millions of lives that are being wasted every day by people who either don’t have a purpose or don’t know their purpose? I ask this question because I am reminded of the fact that it was because I spent thirty years ignorant of my purpose and without a purpose that I was a danger to both myself and all those around me. It is my belief and experience that it is the absence of purpose that drives any of us to waste the precious gift of our