Beating the Odds: Inspirations from Matthew 25

Nwaorgu’s compact guide for success offers a lot more than the typical prosperity theology book suggesting that financial and physical blessings are part of following God. Nwaorgu, a psychologist and priest in the archdiocese of Newark, N.J., uses Matthew 25 to offer advice on how to apply wisdom from Jesus’s stories to everyday life. Three well-known parables (of the lamps, the talents, and the kingdom) are explored in new ways to provide eight principles for producing success and blessing in one’s life. With keen skill and accuracy, the author targets the lessons taught in the parables, often giving unique insight. Nwaorgu’s intent is to get people moving: life is full of opportunities, he writes, but it is what we do with them that will matter most. He consolidates the teaching further, categorizing the stories as ways to be ready, to act, and to give to others when opportunities present themselves. Realizing that choice, not chance, determines fate will result in a closer relationship with people as well as with God, he emphatically believes, and will help the reader beat the odds in achieving blessings. (BookLife)