One of my favorite faith leaders, Max Lucado, is on the show today chatting with me about his latest book, What Happens Next: A Traveler’s Guide Through the End of This Age, which comes out on August 13. Today’s show is a conversation about faith, and about the end times—but it’s anything but doom and gloom and frightening and scary. It’s quite the opposite, actually—I’ve never felt more peace about what will happen to me when it’s my time, and I’ve also never felt more peace about those I love that have already gone home. Max writes in What Happens Next that “God tells us what to expect not to scare us, but to prepare us” and reassures us that it’s all happening right on schedule, writing “Be assured, God is at work. His plans are proceeding at the right pace, in the right places, and according to His will.” In this conversation and in this book, I learned more about paradise, and left feeling so filled with hope of what is to come. I have listened to Max’s voice for so long, as I am a listener of his “Encouraging Word” podcast, and it was such a thrill to have Max speaking directly to me. Max is a bestselling author and minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, and Max has written almost 100 books—100 books!—and regularly appears on the New York Times bestseller list. He was named “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today and “The Best Preacher in America” by Reader’s Digest; he has appeared on programs like NBC Nightly News and Larry King Live, in the pages of USA Today, and has even been a featured speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast. His voice is so, so comforting to me, and, as the Olympics wrap up this weekend, don’t miss what Max says about our loved ones that have gone before us cheering us on as we run our race, like spectators in an Olympic stadium. I hope you will get as much richness and goodness out of this conversation as I most certainly did.

What Happens Next: A Traveler’s Guide Through the End of This Age by Max Lucado