Kent Keith is the originator of the enormously successful "Paradoxical Commandments":
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and youll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
"Have Faith Anyway" introduces the new eleventh commandment:
The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease, and environmental destruction. Have faith anyway.
Using the biblical story/figure of the prophet Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah, who lived around 600 BC, Kent Keith illustrates how one can have faith in God in times of violence, insecurity, and injustice, that is, in our times as well as his. Working his way through the Book of Habakkuk, verse by verse, Keith provides eloquent parallels to that time and ours and shows the valuable lessons Habakkuk learned about what it means to have faith and understand God's purposes when they do not seem to bewhat we would wish for.