Book review: Death by Living by N. D. Wilson

The truth is that a life well lived is always lived on a rising scale of difficulty.
As a little kid, I had a job: Obey my mother. Don't lie. Play hard. Be nice to my sisters.
At the time, that job was actually difficult. My mom kept saying things like, "Come here." And, "No jumping on the couch." Or, "Don't stand on the doorknob and swing on the door." And, "No hitting."
But my sisters were there, and so were my fists. The couch was bouncy. Doors are cool to swing on.
Man, I was bad at my job.

The forty-first book I read in 2015 was Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent by N. D. Wilson.   Wilson is best known, I would imagine, as the author of young adult fantasy, including the 100 Cupboards series, but this is a devotional book.  Or possibly "Christian living."  I've never been entirely clear on the distinction between the two.

Wilson's thesis is that we ought all to live in consciousness of the inevitability of death.  Not only does it orient us to live less self-centered lives ("If you were suddenly given more than you could count, and you couldn't keep any of it for yourself, what would you do?  This is, after all, our current situation."), it is a positive mercy to mankind struggling to overcome his sinful nature: "In the ancient myths, Tartarus is where the revel Titans were tortured forever, where they struggled to complete tasks without any end, without any completion.  Without death, without mortal time, this earth would be Tartarus."

A life well-lived is always lived on a rising scale of difficulty.  The last enemy to be conquered is death.