Written for anyone who wants to appreciate life to the fullest, A Positive Life reveals nine basic yet powerful lessons for living with passionate faith and joy. Through his story of living with HIV, Shane Stanford helps readers find contentment in their own lives, no matter the circumstances. A Focus on the Family Recommendation.

'More than anything, I wanted my life to matter ...' When Shane Stanford discovered he was HIV positive twenty years ago, he knew he had a choice: he could feel sorry for himself, or he could live as faith-fully and boldly as possible. In A Positive Life, Shane offers nine basic yet powerful lessons for living well, all found within the life and ministry of Jesus. As Shane has discovered, even a difficult road offers glimpses of grace. Choosing how to live out that grace is the key to making life matter---and to being more alive than ever before. 'The positive life is not about achieving but about becoming. To understand this is to understand the whole journey.' At the age of sixteen, Shane Stanford contracted HIV from procedures used to treat hemophilia. But through the grace of God, he turned a positive diagnosis into an opportunity for positive living. In this powerful mosaic of story, biblical insight, and spiritual reflections, Shane invites you to a simpler, more contented life as you live, laugh, and love in community as Jesus did---with an appreciation for God's incredible adventure no matter the circumstances. After all, the key to living with purpose is found not in some distant revelation but in our own story and in the stories of those around us. The daily routine that seems mundane might just hold the answers to greater joy. As Shane writes, 'What we are looking for has been within our grasp all along.' So discover how to treasure each day through this hope-filled account of faith, courage, and character. Shane's hard-won words and unique perspective teach all of us about the simplicity of life's most beautiful and enduring gifts.

Shane Stanford is the Senior Pastor of Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Shane is the author of six books and travels extensively sharing his story as an HIV positive hemophiliac and Christian minister. Shane is married to his high school sweetheart, Dr. Pokey Stanford, and they are the parents of three daughters. Learn more about Shane and his teaching ministry at www.shanestanford.com

"I have learned that when life breaks us, we can work to own it before it owns us." Those words of the author, a United Methodist pastor, ring true in his account of a life spent battling hemophilia, HIV, and accompanying illnesses, as well as debilitating spiritual and emotional challenges. Stanford contracted the disease in the 1980s, when HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Yet the period was also the start of research and new medicines that kept him alive. Stanford takes readers through his childhood, when he spent much time under the benign mentoring influence of his grandfather; his adolescence, when he was diagnosed and met his future wife; and his struggle to become a pastor despite his HIV-positive status. His story is more than just a battle against prejudice and HIV/AIDS; it's a love story, a tale of forgiveness, a picture of resilience, and a witness to God's grace. Included are a loving afterword by his wife, Pokey Stanford; Stanford's speech at the 2006 Global AIDS Summit; and a nine-lesson study guide. (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

'I have learned that when life breaks us, we can work to own it before it owns us.' Those words of the author, a United Methodist pastor, ring true in his account of a life spent battling hemophilia, HIV, and accompanying illnesses, as well as debilitating spiritual and emotional challenges. Stanford contracted the disease in the 1980s, when HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Yet the period was also the start of research and new medicines that kept him alive. Stanford takes readers through his childhood, when he spent much time under the benign mentoring influence of his grandfather; his adolescence, when he was diagnosed and met his future wife; and his struggle to become a pastor despite his HIV-positive status. His story is more than just a battle against prejudice and HIV/AIDS; it's a love story, a tale of forgiveness, a picture of resilience, and a witness to God's grace. Included are a loving afterword by his wife, Pokey Stanford; Stanford's speech at the 2006 Global AIDS Summit; and a nine-lesson study guide. (Apr.) -- Publishers Weekly



Stanford, Shane. A Positive Life: Living with HIV as a Pastor, Husband, and Father. Zondervan. Apr. 2010. c.224p. ISBN 978-0-310-29292-0. $19.99. REL Stanford (The Seven Next Words of Christ) has had a tougher row to hoe than most, as an HIV-positive hemophiliac, Christian minister, husband, and father. Although memoirs as such rarely rise to the level of spiritual reading, the extraordinary circumstances of Stanford's life, his unblinkered clarity about it, and his unquenchable gratitude for God's presence in it make this book a salutary exception. As he eloquently writes, his illness is a continuing reminder that 'what divides us is, ultimately, of little consequence.' VERDICT A heartbreaking---and remaking---life story from a longtime survivor of hemophilia and HIV, alarming and inspiring by turns. -- Library Journal review

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