I don’t know about you, but I hate Spring cleaning and love dust, but when it comes to reading over my essay about Rick Warren’s book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, I am experiencing a warm embarrassing rush of blood to my cheeks.
I am listening to a very relaxed Rick Warren two years after I wrote my essay ‘ ®Driven or ©Led? ‘ in 2004.
I’ve gone through so many changes in my life, that I knew that when I finally got around to doing this that I would be tearing it down the middle and sending it to the rubbish heap. However, I do not plan to rub out the mistakes of my past (which is easy to do in our computer age), for there was no malice in my heart when I wrote it. However, I have changed ( I have grown ) and with these changes came a whole new way of looking at life.
So instead of burning this man of God down with my words, I am going to read his book ( something I never did) and write an honest to goodness review of what I really think about it, seven years along. So Rick, this one’s for you. No, wait a minute it’s for me. It should have read ‘Eric Sawyer Seven Years Along’ but whose that bored with their own lives. 
Rick Warren Seven Years Along ( A Review of ‘The Purpose Driven Life )
by Eric J. Sawyer
( sorry you’ll have to wait until I’ve done the 40 days )
As a show of good faith here I am Rick, I am reading your book.
‘You are not an accident. Even before the universe was created, God had you in mind, and planned you for his purposes. These purposes will extend far beyond the few years you will spend on earth. You were made to last forever!
Self-help books often suggest that you try to discover the meaning and purpose of your life by looking within yourself, but Rick Warren says that is the wrong place to start. You must begin with God, your Creator, and his reasons for creating you. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.’
The dustcover hype also informs us of the following:
‘The book will help you understand why you are alive and God’s amazing plan for you — both here and now and for eternity’
Okay, so it’s a sort of key study book to help you get to Jesus who has already offered both these to whoever comes to Jesus (in other words turns ~ repents) and believes (places their complete trust) in what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross to set us free from our sin ( or, self-orientated existence), so that we may serve and enjoy the living God for the rest of our days.
A bit more from the dustcover:
‘Rick Warren will guide you through a 40-day spiritual journey that will transform your answer to life’s most important question: What on earth am I here for?
Okay, this is what put me off the first time I tried to read this book and I will tell you why. My spiritual journey found it’s guide when I met the person of Jesus Christ at 18 years of age. I’d been on a spiritual journey that had many so-called guides (some seen, some unseen ~ but that is another story). I had already figured out that the problem of trying to change this world and that included myself was a task to great for me. The false answer came in the form of a voice into my heart to end my life and fly to my god. (refer my raggedy short story) The true answer came in the form of a voice into my heart which prompted me to ask Jesus into my heart. I’d heard the testimonies and sermons in my mid to late teens, but nothing seemed to impress me that it was something that could make any difference. In fact I had even tried praying the sinners prayer ( quite a few times ) but it was not until I reached that point where the spirit of Jesus Christ called out to me to ask him into my heart, that the motor of love began turning.
So my questions was probably something along the lines of “How can I save the world and how can I save myself?” Answer 1: Kill yourself. Answer 2: Ask me into your life. It’s amazing to me that when the chips were down and I had no where left to turn, it was not my pagan deity that came to me and became the answer, but the one spirit that this world seems set on ignoring. “JESUS!”
Nevertheless I can understand where this Christian writer is coming from. He’s looking at Paul who states that we are here because a) we were created by God, b) for God.
I’m not putting on the brakes, I just wanted to get my feelings out in the open about this. Basically he thinks that life’s most important question is ‘What on earth am I here for?’ but for me it was ‘How can I save the world and how can I save myself?’
So here’s a question for you all: What do you believe is life’s most important question? I’ve heard that life’s primary quest is the pursuit of happiness, but I guess it really depends where you are at. Right?
More from the dustcover:
Knowing God’s purpose for creating you will reduce your stress, focus your energy, simplify your decisions, give meaning to your life, and, most important, prepare you for eternity.
Why does this sound like an advert? I think because it is missing the vital problem with mankind. It’s not stress, or lack of energy, or difficult decisions, ( I am still thinking about ‘give meaning to your life’ < as I'm sure that factors in at some point.) The 'most important' part to this is according to the dustcover, preparation 'for eternity' Well that would be the typical evangelical trump card, but the dustcover fails to mention sin. What this dustcover claims is that 'Knowing God's purpose for creating' us 'will reduce' but what about 'end' It does sound too much like one of those commercials/adverts about how to 'reduce' stuff, but it never claims to make and end of stuff. It's a quick fix, but fails to address the heart of the problem and therefore fails to impress me. I'm running, but you know what, I promised to read this book Rick and I am going to persevere. Okay?
Now to the second last stanza on the dustcover:
‘The Purpose-Driven® Life is a blueprint for Christian living in the 21st century — a life based on God’s eternal purposes, not cultural values. Using over 1,200 scriptural quotes and references, it challenges the conventional definitions of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. In the tradition of Oswald Chambers, Rick Warren offers distilled wisdom on the essence of what life is all about.
Okay, this is worth thinking about. I’ll get back as soon as I have done that.
Okay, I’m back. Though I already responded to the following, I think I am not yet done. So here it is again.
‘Rick Warren will guide you through a 40-day spiritual journey that will transform your answer to life’s most important question: What on earth am I here for?
The question that would not let me rest on this one was ‘What is life’s most important question?’ The problem is that very few questions that life forces us to ask are the right question. There is another question that forces itself through the metaphorical crowd to Jesus and finds that Jesus has a question for us. The one that we want to know the answer to is ‘Who am I’ and Jesus’ reply is ‘Who do you say that I am’
At the end of John’s gospel he makes a point about the reason he wrote the book. It was so that we might know who Jesus is and in that knowing to not just find the answer to an important question, but to know the one who held more than just answers to questions, but who Paul describes as being the source of all knowledge and wisdom. I’ve cried out many a question to the heavens, but the one that I believe is the single most important question is not ‘Who am I?’ but ‘Who is Jesus?’ Not only does our present estate depend on how we answer this question but whatever awaits us in the life to come.
One day Jesus was asked, ‘What is the will of God?’ To which he replied, ‘To believe in the one whom He has sent’ In my humble opinion the GREATEST QUESTION is not whether or not we came from apes, or what will happen when we die, or who we are, or what on earth am I here for, but who we say that Jesus is. (It was such an important question that the apostle Paul makes it the confession and belief by which we are saved, when he writes: ‘…. confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.‘ < of course the meaning of salvation refers not just to the next world, but to this one right now. )
Spoken as a question, it is not the question that we are asking but the one which was spoken from the heavens. It's recorded that a voice spoke and some said it thundered and what was the voice saying, 'This is My Son in whom I am well pleased.' Again what were the first words that Jesus said to Paul. 'Saul, Saul why do you persecute Me?' Paul's question is a good one, 'Who are you Lord?' It's very interesting to note that the gospel accounts are repeatedly answering the question that I believe God requires we ask. 'Who is Jesus?' The questions about ourselves are found in answering this question adequately. It is interesting to note that most religions offer to answer a selfish question. Most of our hearts are focussed on ourselves. 'Know thyself' is of greater importance than the unselfish question which was presented to us by Jesus, 'Who do you say, that I am?' Some answered one way, but both Mary at Lazarus' death and Peter when Jesus asked him. 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God' It's this answer that identifies the question that will set us free from the ridiculous pursuit of self. Self is not the key. Now I am dashing off to read more of Vishal Mangalwadi's book: ‘In Search of Self’ Beyond The New Age
This is the selfish heart’s cry:
“But here at the end of ‘self’ I found a new world, complete in Jesus the Lord…”
+)(+
I'm going to stop here for a bit to have tea and to think about this. I know this is not you writing, it is the part that is on the cover of you book, but it's still something worth thinking about before I start. Right?
(I'll be back soon, not sure exactly when, but keep this page book marked)
