Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have

Rate this book
MP3 CD Format

"'This is the main event' is the kind of phrase I'd like to tattoo on my arm--and my spirit ... a thoughtful, artful, soulful meditation on life and faith and time and what really matters." -Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author

A simple mantra to change discover how to encounter God in your everyday, and practice extraordinary presence in an ordinary life.

What if the life we long for isn't elsewhere but rather right here, waiting to be discovered?

Joshua Luke Smith believes the greatest lie facing our generation is that the life we long for lies beyond the life that we have. We so easily learn to disdain the inconveniences and interruptions that infuse our everyday. But the real transformation happens when we look at our life as it is and dare to This is the main event.

With devotional depth and prophetic wisdom, and interspersed with the author's original poetry and blessings, This Is the Main Event is your invitation to awaken to the sacred in your ordinary life. The pathway is through three spiritual practices, as Joshua commends, each proclaiming a transformative


LAMENTATION: you are allowed to name your painCONSECRATION: you are called to let grace change youADORATION: you are invited to live in the wonder of God's daily presenceIt's easy to see the bills, packed lunches, traffic jams, dentist appointments as mundanity, but then again, God comes to you in the shape of your actual life. Joshua Luke Smith writes from the raw materials of his own ordinary life--toddler tuck-ins, recovery meetings, flat tires a mile from home--to speak to yours. As you'll soon discover, every moment becomes meaningful when you recognize the God who meets you in it--a holy encounter accessed in the everyday.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 28, 2026

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Joshua Luke Smith

4 books16 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
6 (75%)
4 stars
2 (25%)
3 stars
0 (0%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Mallory Garrison.
38 reviews1 follower
August 26, 2026
This is truly one, if not the, most beautiful books I’ve read this year. Joshua is a truly artist and poet, and the humility and beauty he brings up to the surface in this book is breathtaking. If you’re looking for a book with a 3 step system for you to finally be content with your life I may suggest you look elsewhere, although I do believe Joshua makes a very compelling case for the ordinary life in 3 parts.
As I read I started keeping a photograph as myself from when I was 3, because I found that much of this book was addressing her the inner child we all have somewhere beneath us. And it felt nourishing to her. All to say, I highly recommend and hope you give this a read.
Profile Image for Ruth.
81 reviews
August 14, 2026
A poetic, earthy and hope-filled invitation to find the life we long for in the life we already have.

Joshua Luke Smith beautifully writes about embracing the life we have through:

“lamentation: you are allowed to name your pain.
consecration: you are called to let grace change you.
adoration: you are invited to live in wonder of God’s daily presence.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews