Out of Time and the Pursuit of Shalom

There was once a time when only God knew the day you'd die.

So begins the Out of Time trilogy by Nadine Brandes. A journey of faith, a fight for freedom, the pursuit of shalom.

Parvin Brielle Blackwater has one year left to live. Scheduled to die at the age of 18, she's spent the first 17 years of her life...doing nothing. Wasting her time. Living a mundane, average, everyday life that won't get remembered. Watching her Clock tick down the days, hours, minutes, seconds until she zeroes out.

How would you live if you knew the day you'd die?

But the truth is, Parvin doesn't know that she has only a year left to live because she's been illegally sharing a Clock with her twin brother Reid, and no one knows to whom it truly belongs. As a selfish Last Year wish, she decides she wants to be remembered. She wants to finally be something, so that she will be missed.

What happens to people on the other side of the Wall?

Unregistered Radicals--people without Clocks--are sent out of the USE, across the Wall, never to be seen again. When Parvin is sent across the Wall, her life changes forever.

Because what is the point of life? What good is there in living an ordinary life, meeting your own needs, never making a difference? When you zero out, what will have been the point? Will you have wasted your life, being empty numbers, or will your life mean something? Will you stand for something? Will you pursue shalom?

Shalom--peace, completeness, the way God intended things to be.

After living a wasted life, after setting out on an adventure to make herself remembered, Parvin finds what life is supposed to mean. She finds faith--true reliance on God. She finds friends--people who support her and encourage her to follow God's calling. She finds purpose--the pursuit of shalom.

Life isn't easy for Parvin Blackwater. This is a book series, after all, and a dystopian at that. Many horrible, irrevocable things happen. But what matters is God and the calling He gave her to bring shalom to her people. To work to make peace, to bring things to completion, to restore the USE to the way God intended it to be--not in her own power, but ever and only by the power of God.

Was it all worth it? Was this wild adventure that changed my nation, my heart, and my faith worth it? Oh my, yes. All because, after a desperate prayer on a hospital floor so long ago, God showed me that--with Him . . . it's always time to live.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be pre-Last Year Parvin Blackwater. I don't want to be wasting my life living in a little village taking care of my own business, believing in God, yes, but trusting in Him, only to an extent. I want to be faithful Parvin Blackwater. I want to be the Parvin who put everything on the line to serve God. The Parvin who continually stepped out of her comfort zone and did whatever God called her to do, even though she hadn't a clue what she was getting herself into. I want to be the Parvin who never stops in pursuing shalom, who fights for the way God intended things to be.

There was once a time when only God knew the day you'd die...

I highly recommend the Out of Time series for teens and adults.