Twelve Letters I Leave for You
I am offering a few reminders I was either handed or wish I had been handed in the years that preceded today. I want to share a few stories that may help you along life’s terrible, painful, dreadful, joyful, peaceful, beautiful ventures.
At my age, as I look toward the future, the land seems smaller now. As I look toward the past, the terrain is vast.
I choose to write it down—to remember, to offer it to those whose glimpse of the past may be shorter and whose vision of the future may be much wider.
That’s why I’m writing these twelve letters to you. I’m writing them as if it were my final collection of reflections. A few more stories to give you while I can.
The title of each chapter is the title of a book that significantly influenced my mind and my life. Those authors handed down their words to me. In the stories of this book, I hand down to you the lessons I’ve learned and those I wish I had applied with greater diligence. May you apply them better than I have.
One book, Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who, helped me glance at truth through words I often ignored and stories of Bible characters I too frequently rushed past. People with worries. People with wounds. People who made terrible mistakes. People who were loved by God, who looked like God, who were called by God. People like us. Like me. Like our family and friends. Like your generation and mine. That is us. The fallen ones are the loved ones. The scared ones are made in the image of God. The ones doubting any value they might possess are the peculiar treasures of life.
This is what I want you to read. It is what I want you to believe.
And though I know it and believe it, I have struggled at times to accept the idea that God might consider me a treasure. No matter how peculiar you or I may feel we are, we are His treasures.
These are the things I want to hand down; I want you to hold, receive, and welcome.
Welcome my attempt with peculiar words as a treasure for your future.
My hands can’t hold them too much longer. I want to hand them your way.
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Chris Maxwell offers a heartfelt and insightful collection of wisdom, dis- tilled from a lifetime of experiences and encounters. Each “letter” is a gem, filled with poignant anecdotes, practical advice, thought-provoking reflections, and life-changing insights that will inspire you to live with greater purpose, compassion, and joy. Whether you’re navigating the challenges of youth, the complexities of adulthood, or the uncertainties of old age, Things We’ve Handed Down is a luminous guide that will help you find your way through the thorniest thicket of life. This book is a legacy of love and wisdom that will be cherished for generations to come.
In Things We’ve Handed Down, Chris Maxwell helps us to acknowledge and face the inner struggles, the loss and disappointment, which seem to be erased and banned from the pages of our social media or even our ordinary conversation. In a society where everyone is supposed to be happy and successful, sorrow and disappointment are taboo. Chris boldly breaks the taboo, and in these twelve intimate letters, he offers real wisdom and insight, not privately, or subjectively on his own part, but passing on the wisdom of ages, the wisdom of others acquired in his deep reading and deep living. This is a book that fearlessly searches our wounds but also offers us hope and healing.
Books are a dialogue between writer and reader. That is the case with this book but with a significant addition: this book is a dialogue between Chris Maxwell, the reader, and a dozen or so other writers who have influenced Chris and many of us. This makes Things We’ve Handed Down like a living three-way conversation with Chris, we the readers, and people like C.S. Lewis, Walter Wangerin, Jr., Henri Nouwen, Frederick
Buechner. Picture yourself in a quiet place where you listen in to the conversations in this book. You will sit enthralled and leave inspired after each chapter.