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    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness
    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness
    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness
    Ebook116 pages2 hours

    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness

    By Matthew Kelly

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    About this ebook

    Do you believe it's possible to be happier than you have ever been before? Not for fleeting moments, but consistently? Bestselling author Matthew Kelly believes it is possible—and in his latest book, The Biggest Lie, he explains how.

    We all want to be happy and live life to the fullest, but the answer isn't found in the world's definition of happiness. Modern culture is constantly feeding us lies, and these lies affect you more than you know. The lies that affect you the most, however, are the ones you tell yourself. These lies steal your joy, sap your energy, and cause you to lose hope. They prevent you from discovering the kind of vibrant faith the first Christians experienced.

    But as Kelly shows, we've arrived at a crucial moment in history. People are disillusioned with what the world offers. The world is in desperate need of change, and no one is in a better position to effect that change than Christians. We have an incredible opportunity to dispel the lies and cut through the confusion and false promises around us.

    This book provides the practical tools necessary to help you regain your fervor and leave your mark on the world—and experience more happiness than you thought possible. Together we can change the course of history—with humility, generosity, kindness, and joy, one Holy Moment at a time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateAug 15, 2018
    ISBN9781635820614
    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness
    Author

    Matthew Kelly

    Matthew Kelly es un autor superventas, conferenciante, líder intelectual, empresario, consultor, líder espiritual e innovador. Ha dedicado su vida a ayudar a personas y organizaciones a convertirse en la mejor versión de sí mismas. Nacido en Sídney (Australia), empezó a dar conferencias y a escribir al final de su adolescencia, mientras estudiaba negocios. Desde entonces, cinco millones de personas han asistido a sus seminarios y presentaciones en más de cincuenta países. En la actualidad, Kelly es un conferenciante, autor y consultor empresarial aclamado internacionalmente. Sus libros se han publicado en más de treinta idiomas, han aparecido en las listas de los más vendidos de The New York Times, Wall Street Journal y USA Today, y han vendido más de cincuenta millones de ejemplares. A los veintipocos años desarrolló el concepto de «la mejor versión de uno mismo» y lleva más de veinticinco compartiéndolo en todos los ámbitos de la vida. Lo citan presidentes y celebridades, deportistas y sus entrenadores, líderes empresariales e innovadores, aunque quizá nunca se cita con más fuerza que cuando una madre o un padre pregunta a un hijo: «¿Te ayudará eso a convertirte en la mejor versión de ti mismo?». Los intereses personales de Kelly incluyen el golf, la música, el arte, la literatura, las inversiones, la espiritualidad y pasar tiempo con su mujer y sus hijos. Para más información, visita MatthewKelly.com

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    Reviews for The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity

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    • 4/5
      The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity was a 2018 Christmas gift from my church to each family of parishioners. We've been given other books by Matthew Kelly before. I let my copy sit, forgotten, until I decided to make it my religious book to read one chapter of each Sunday in January of 2021. There are only 15 chapters, so I finished it in April.This book is about what we need to do to find lasting happiness. It's no surprise that the answer is not striving to acquire whatever is proclaimed to be a'"must have'. Nor is living only for our own pleasure. The big lie is that holiness is not possible for ordinary persons. Chapter seven tells us how to create a holy moment -- just a moment. Once you've created that one holy moment, you will be able to create more. As the author points out, even those persons whom we believe to have led holy lives, weren't being holy all the time. They had their own holy and unholy moments.We are given stories about persons whose first holy moment started to change their lives for the better. Then we are told about how we, as Christians, can use the simplicity of Christianity's core values of goodness, beauty (for holy moments are things of beauty), and hope to transform our world. Mr. Kelly uses mathematics to show how if each person who has absorbed the concept and habit of creating holy moments converts just three other persons to do the same, the entire world could be changed.Is it possible? As my late father used to tell me, you'll never know if you don't try.
    • 4/5
      This is an intriguing book. Where one might expect a very elaborate amplification of the title, what one finds is quite simple. Archimedes said if he could find a large enough lever, he could move the world. Perhaps. Kelly offers an alternative method of moving the world ... Holy Moments, which can be defined as similar to good deeds but of even lesser stature. A gentle zephyr of thinking about God can be a Holy Moment. As a kid, I worked as a soda jerk in my Dad's drug store. An ice cream soda was quite an event requiring a very tall and wide glass into which was placed the chosen syrup flavor or fresh fruit. This was expanded to fill the glass with a spurt of the high-velocity soda water spigot. Ice cream was added, more soda water but at ordinary velocity, whip cream and, perhaps, a cherry. The thing is the high-velocity soda water created a huge amount of bubbles -- something like if you could put Holy Moments in a glass that is what it would look like.But, of course, you don't put Holy Moments in a glass. I believe the current Covid pandemic is producing Holy Moments in each of us like nothing before.
    • 4/5
      A fast read with a big message: small acts of kindness and humility can change the world. If you are religious, pray to God for transformation. Kelly refers to these acts of kindness as holiness. But I think it is equally powerful if you are not a believer; either way, don't be a jerk!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book has an amazing message and is a truly wonderful call to action. The message and content is deserving of 5 stars, however, the writing style was so repetitive that it made it more difficult to read than it should have been.

    Book preview

    The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity - Matthew Kelly

    LIFE IS A PUZZLE

    Once upon a time there was a very successful business owner. His company had faithfully served millions of customers for many years. But lately business had not been so good, and his competitors were just waiting for him to fail. For months the man pondered the crisis, but the problems were so complex, and solutions seemed nowhere to be found.

    Everyone was wondering what would happen to this great company, so finally the businessman announced that he was hosting a dinner for all of his employees; he would unveil a plan that would save the company and return it to its former glory. He wanted to convey to them how important each person was to the future success of the organization.

    The morning of the dinner, he was sitting in his study at home working on his speech, when his wife came in and asked if he would mind watching their son for a few hours while she ran some errands. He was about to say, I really need to focus on finishing my speech, but something caught his tongue and he found himself agreeing, if reluctantly.

    His wife had only been gone about ten minutes when there was a knock on the study door, and there appeared his seven-year-old son. Dad, I’m bored! he exclaimed. The father spent the next couple of hours trying to amuse his son while also trying to finish his speech. Finally he realized that if he could not find some way to entertain his child, he was never going to get his speech finished in time.

    Picking up a magazine, he thumbed through the pages until he came to a large, brightly colored map of the world. He ripped the picture into dozens of pieces and led his son into the living room. Then, tossing the pieces all over the floor, he announced, Son, if you can put the map of the world back together, I will give you twenty dollars.

    The boy immediately began gathering the pieces. He was keen to earn the extra money, as he needed just twenty more dollars to buy a toy he had been saving for since his last birthday. The father returned to his study, thinking he had just bought himself a couple of hours to finish working on his speech, because he knew his seven-year-old son had no idea what a map of the world looked like.

    But five minutes later, just as he was settling into his speech, there was another knock on the study door. There stood the young boy holding the completed map of the world.

    The father said in amazement, How did you finish it so quickly?

    The boy smiled and said, You know, Dad, I had no idea what the map of the world looked like, but as I was picking up the pieces, I noticed that on the back there was a picture of a man. The father smiled, and the boy continued. So, I put a sheet of paper down, and I put the picture of the man together, because I knew what the man looked like. I placed another sheet of paper on top, then holding them tightly I turned them both over. He smiled again and exclaimed, I figured, if I got the man right, the world would be right.

    The man handed his son twenty dollars. And you’ve given me my speech for tonight. If you get the man right, you get the world right.

    ***

    Transforming people one at a time is at the heart of God’s plan for the world. It is also essential to developing dynamic marriages, loving families, vibrant Christian communities, thriving businesses and economies, and extraordinary schools and nations. If you get the man right (or the woman, of course), you get the world right.

    Every time you become a-better-version-of-yourself, the con- sequences of your transformation echo throughout your family, friends, business, school, neighborhood, church, marriage, nation, and beyond to people and places in the future. It is God who does the transforming, but only to the extent that we cooperate. God’s grace is constant, never lacking. So our cooperation with God’s desire to transform us is essential; it is the variable. Are you willing to let God transform you?

    If you get the man or woman right, you get the world right. Such a simple message—yet we seem constantly obsessed with things we have no influence over, rather than focusing on where we can have most impact, which is with our own thoughts, words, and actions. It is our own thoughts, words, and actions that are at the epicenter of our circle of influence. The further we get away from them, worrying about what other people are thinking and saying or doing, the weaker our influence and impact becomes. Focus on affecting what you can affect and you will have the most effect. It all starts with you.

    YOUR HAPPINESS PROJECT

    Have you ever noticed that everyone wants to be happy? Everyone! Is that just a coincidence? Probably not. At least, I don’t think so. I think there is a reason we all have this incredibly strong yearning to be happy. What’s the reason? We human beings were created for happiness and more.

    In some ways life is a happiness project. This project is full of paradoxes. For example, it may seem like it is about you, but it’s actually more about what you can do for other people. It turns out that bringing happiness to other people increases your chances of being happy, while seeking happiness for yourself decreases those chances.

    We all do stupid things from time to time, and usually we know they are going to bring us a measure of misery before we do them. They may bring some type of momentary pleasure or adrenaline rush, but these things pass quickly, leaving our yearning for true happiness stronger than ever. Then we try something else, hoping that will make us happy.

    So, let me ask you: How’s your happiness project going? Give yourself a progress report. What’s working? What’s not working? What wisdom do you have about the quest for happiness that you could pass on to others? And most important, do you feel you have finally unearthed the secret to happiness?

    The thing is, our deep yearning isn’t for momentary pleasures; it is for lasting happiness in a changing world. The world is always changing; we cannot control every situation. Situational happiness is easy. It is easy to be happy lying on an exotic tropical beach all day for a week. But so much of this happiness is dependent on the situation. What we are really hungry for is a happiness that is independent of the situation.

    Paul the apostle had it. He continually wrote about joy in his letters from prison. In fact, it was the most common theme in his writings from the filth and squalor of his first-century prison cell. Could you be happy in that situation? I don’t think I could be, if I’m being honest. I’d probably get miserable and depressed pretty quickly. So I am right by your side in this journey with you, and I have a lot of work to do myself. I am also in the midst of my own happiness project, and just like yours, it has its ups and downs. Among authors there is a saying that goes something like, We write the books we need to read. So maybe I am writing this book for you, or maybe it is the message I most need to hear at this time.

    Through my own quest for happiness, there are a few things I have learned:

    •Happiness and pleasure are not the same thing.

    •Getting what I want doesn’t make me happy.

    •Focusing on myself almost never leads to happiness.

    •I am never happy when I pretend to be someone I am not.

    •Too much of the happiness I experience is dependent on unsustainable circumstances or situations.

    •The more I help others in their quest for lasting happiness, the happier I seem to be.

    •Lying never makes me happy.

    •Happiness is always found by embracing the present moment.

    •It is impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

    •Anything that helps me become a-better-version-of-myself makes me happy, even if it is difficult or painful.

    •Happiness is contagious.

    You have no doubt discovered your own truths about happiness that could be added to this list. But there is one question that I want to ask you as we begin this journey together: Do you believe it is possible to be happier than you have been at any other time in your life? Think

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