Bigger Than Me: Just When I thought I Had all the Answers, God Changed the Questions
Have you wondered, Is this all there is?
Somehow we’ve bought into the lie that the good life is a showy one. But the greatest adventures come when we stop living for self and what the world says is important—and start living for things that really matter. Nothing is duller, in the long run, than one more bag of money, one more business conquest, or one more round of earthly pleasure. The returns are depressingly diminishing.
Bigger Than Me is a collection of candid reflections from a successful businessman about money, ego, truth, busyness, solitude, legacy, dying, faith, gratitude, and much more. His early worldly accomplishments taught him first hand that there are deeper, more satisfying goals in life than those our culture celebrates.
If you’ve found yourself looking for deeper purpose and meaning, this book will inspire you to make a course correction that doesn’t involve sweeping the past aside. Rather, you can use all of life’s lessons to build something new and bigger than yourself.
—Sarah Groves, internationally known contemporary Christian singer, record producer, and author
The most important things in life are not what we acquire or achieve but the fingerprints we leave behind on other people’s lives. Ward Brehm leaves some great fingerprints in Bigger Than Me.
—Cris Carter, member of the NFL Hall of Fame and sports analyst for Fox Sports
—Gov. David Beasley, executive director of World Food Program and former governor of South Carolina
Ward Brehm has had a remarkable and inspiring journey. In Bigger Than Me, he graciously shares what he has learned along the way. Just as his faith and his work in Africa have transformed his life, reading his words can transform ours.
—US Senator Amy Klobuchar
—US Senator John Boozman
Ward opens his heart in this inspiring book and talks vulnerably about how he found his core significance by following Jesus. What great joy there is in realizing that life isn’t about how much we can accomplish or how busy we can be but about loving God and our neighbors with everything He’s given us. This book is a must read. You’ll be encouraged and challenged by it.
—US Senator Jim Inhofe
—Rich Stearns, president of World Vision U.S. and author of The Hole in Our Gospel
“Seek and ye shall find.” Ward Brehm’s inspiring book, Bigger Than Me, tells us not to listen for God’s booming voice but to examine our life’s journey and find His hand. Ward never preaches, but his examples of joy from giving of self certainly qualify him as a spiritual guide. He is a seeker who has found a great deal from which we can learn.
—Marilyn Nelson-Carlson, chair of The Carlson Companies
—Greg Page, former CEO and chairman of Cargill Inc.
Bigger Than Me is really a travel book. In moving terms, it documents one man’s faith journey—the twists and turns, the ups and downs, the unexpected adventures. With every step and with every adventure, Ward becomes a better man, and I found myself challenged to reflect on these most important lessons.
—Mark Green, administrator of USAID and former US congressman
—Jack Leslie, chairman and CEO of Weber Shandwick
Ward Brehm is the pastor to his pastor! If I put into one place all his words of comfort, wisdom, and challenge to me over the years, it would become this book, Bigger Than Me!
—Rev. Dr. John F. Ross, senior minister, Wayzata Community Church
—Ed Meese, US attorney general under President Ronald Reagan
Ward’s sharing of his faith journey in Bigger Than Me challenges us to quit following dime-store maps and instead reorient our lives so we can discover and fulfill our God-given purpose.
—Hon. Kathleen Blatz, former chief justice, Minnesota Supreme Court
—US Senator Mike Enzi
Ward’s life is a remarkable example of personal growth and transformation, and through it he has touched many lives. Bigger Than Me is a wonderful story about finding God and walking with Him.
—Tony Hall, former US congressman and US ambassador to the United Nations agencies on hunger and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Product Details
- Title : Bigger Than Me: Just When I thought I Had all the Answers, God Changed the Questions
- Authors:
- Brehm, Ward
- Warren, Rick
- Publisher: Broadstreet Publishing Group, LLC
- Publication Date: 2017
- ISBN: 9781424555017
Ward Brehm is a Twin Cities businessman, a leader in African humanitarian efforts, and a nationally-known public speaker and commentator on relief and development in Africa.
In 2004 President Bush appointed Brehm to be chairman of the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), following confirmation by the US Senate, where he served until 2009. In 2010 President Obama reappointed Brehm to the board of the USADF, where he continues to serve.
He also is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the American Refugee Committee (ARC) based in Minneapolis. At ARC, he helped found the Asili initiative, which brings a network of proven social businesses together into an enterprise platform that delivers essential services—clean water, quality health care, and agricultural livelihoods—at affordable prices to Eastern Congo, using a locally owned for profit business platform.
In 2008, Brehm brought his message as an advocate for the poor in Africa to the National Prayer Breakfast, where he gave the keynote address before an audience including the US President, First Lady, foreign heads of state, most members of Congress, and the Washington diplomatic community. Brehm was the first person from the US business community to be asked by Congress to address this annual gathering in Washington, DC.
Brehm was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal—the country’s second-highest civilian honor—for his work in Africa at an Oval Office ceremony with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in December of 2008.
In addition to Bigger Than Me, Brehm is also the author of two books on his experiences in Africa, Life Through a Different Lens and White Man Walking.
Brehm recently sold the insurance consulting companies he founded, and now engages in full-time humanitarian work in Africa as an unofficial ambassador for Jesus. He and his wife, Kris, live and work in Minneapolis, MN.