My Concensus on the Purpose Driven Life - from one who once despised the idea of reading it.

The Purpose Driven Life

By Sarah G

10/1/07
revised 10/7/07

So I must say, I was proud about not reading “The Purpose Driven Life” all through out high school. What’s funny is that the first book I was handed in the beginning of this internship was the one I took pride in never reading! I’ve been humbled quite a bit however, and God truly prepared my heart for it.

First, on a humorous note, Rick Warren hit his peak when he said, “God made ants to be ants and you to be you.” You can’t touch that!!

The first third of The Purpose Driven Life mainly focused on beginner Christian content.
It was hard to get interested in the book until my attention was caught in Day 17, when it started talking about finding one’s place in the Body of Christ. That really stuck out o me and it began to help shape my understanding of what the Body should be to one another – REAL.

There was a whole section on forgiveness and how God expects it to be immediate, though He doesn’t expect or even encourage trust right away; and I can tell you right now, it was encouragement I needed to hear in my life. Warren talked about how to love people even after they’ve hurt you, and how to go about showing them the love of Jesus without becoming a doormat to more pain. Just the idea that I am at this exact place in my life where I needed to read this, shows God’s unbelievable faithfulness over and over again.

Reading on from this point, the book goes into how to approach and confront fellow believers in your church family, and that if you are to do anything, it must always be done in love. Situations I’ve been in where people thought they had a right to confront me about something that was NOT a sin in my life and correct it, has put me in a place where I absolutely believe in being in Love (God) before speaking into someone’s life, using the right of “Siblingship” as the means to do so. Whenever this happened to me, I would walk away feeling dejected and depressed. That’s not right, and in fact, it’s wrong. This whole part of the book put into words what I’ve been struggling with inside of me; and I always felt crazy, like I’m the only one dealing with this sort of thing. Am I the only one who tries to forgive with her whole heart, but struggles over that pain caused, over and over again? Am I the only person who finds herself forgiving that same offence as many times as it plays over and over again, through painful memory?
I’m NOT!! I’m a normal person! Jesus, Jesus was a normal person. I’m not crazy.

I LOVED how the book dug into REALITY and how the truth is, its hard to love people. It’s hard to be selfless, and yet we try anyway. Why? Because we’re attached to the believers forever. I love the analogy of the blood family – you hate them, you love them, you mistreat them, you bless them, but you gotta make it work because you’re related them, you’re stuck with them, and really, because you love them.

Another favorite part of mine started in Day 23 – Growing up, and how we grow. It talked about growing up spiritually and why it matters so much, and it does! I’m not even sure how to explain how blessed I was by this message. “The Purpose Driven Life” emphasized on always needing to grow up in the Lord by “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”. It went on to talk about how we need to change our mindset – what (or how) we think shapes our life.

Change became the focal point of the book at this revelation, and things really hit close to home when Warren talked about how we try to do things in our own will-power which only results in short-term results. This really began to speak to my heart as I began to realize that I depend a LOT on my own will-power by default! I’m finding that I’m terribly immature, spiritually, which in all truthfulness means selfishness and self-seeking. I don’t know what else to say except that the Holy Spirit convicted my heart in an awe-full way.

By Day 25, Warren began to touch the topic of letting truth transform you and ALSO letting troubles shape who you are. It seems that every topic this book targeted was EXACTLY the topic God wanted to speak to my heart about at the exact time I read it. The fact that I can’t get over this truth runs right into what the book was saying at this point about how God allows certain things to happen to us for specific reasons. This section turned out to be somewhat of a pep-talk. It talked about how to take hurts as they come and what to always keep in mind when you’re going through them: God’s got a bigger picture in mind. It really holds high the building of character through all the issues we face, and I’ve begun to ask myself if maybe I’m looking at things the wrong way in my own life.
What blessed me most was the overall message that said, “When you allow yourself to be refined by your trials, people will see Jesus’ reflection in you.”

From that point, the book flowed into how to deal with temptations: physical, mental, emotional – all spiritual. It reminds us that God takes His time with us, and how the people that God used in the past had major issues in their lives. But if we’re willing, He’ll go through those major issues in our lives WITH us, as He did with them, by allowing us to be challenged in our faith. Our biggest hurts and pains? His biggest source of ministry through us.

The next section was all on servanthood which just convicted my spirit of my self-seeking ways: even when I think I’m being servant-like, I’m really just doing it because I feel good about myself. What about the times I won’t and I don’t feel good? Will I still hold fast to being a bond-servant to Jesus Christ? I didn’t even know how deep this issue runs into everything I am!! But God allowed me to see this, through the words written in this book, and even in this rebuking of the soul, I am blessed.

The LAST part talked about the Great Commission and spreading the gospel. I’ll admit, I kind of skimmed over the last 2 days since they were just conclusive in their content.

All in all, “The Purpose Driven Life” was good because I needed to read it. It wasn’t the most amazing book, it wasn’t the most horrible either. But truth be told, it’s not about that. It’s about what God did in my heart as a result of going through it, and THAT result is eternal. I’m glad I read it.