The purpose driven life- Rick Warren

I'll be one among the many millions who appreciate this book. Written by Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church; *This book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for advice books for one of the longest periods in history, while also becoming arguably one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time, topping the Wall Street Journal best seller charts as well as Publishers Weekly charts with over 30 million copies in print by 2006.*

The book aims to enable you to discover the most important question, What on earth am I here for? The author calls you to have a 40 day spiritual journey and strongly urges you to read only 1 chapter a day so that you will have time to think about the implications for your life.

The journey begins by unveiling the purposes of God under these titles

• Purpose 1: You Were Planned for God's Pleasure (Worship)
  
• Purpose 2: You Were Formed for God's Family (Fellowship)
  
• Purpose 3: You Were Created to Become Like Christ (Discipleship)
  
• Purpose 4: You Were Shaped for Serving God (Ministry)
  
• Purpose 5: You Were Made for a Mission (Mission)
  

Each of these is fulfilled sequentially and built upon the other, i.e, one cannot function without accomplishing the previous.

Let me confess, that I did not take the 40 day spiritual journey, and I finished the book in a week.However I have re-read it many times, and during travel, this is one book that you will find in my backpack.This is the kind of book which impacts your thinking.This book has served as a great conversation starter at many places too.

I like this book not because I read it and Eureka!! I found my purpose, but because this book helped me look at the big picture of God's purpose instead of my tunnel materialistic view of success.There is not a single page that you can afford to skim through in this book.Each sentence drives a point to your heart.

Though some wont agree with the paraphrasing of Scripture from different versions, I think that the verses are not taken out of context.Usually the tendency is to skip the bible reference while reading a book, so instead of reproducing the complete reference he includes a reference id that could be looked up in the appendix to find out where it can be found in the Bible.

I know that Pastor Warren has many critics,but as far as this book is concerned, I can assure you of its clarity and its motivation is to glorify God's purposes.Short anecdotes, poetry and punchy one-liners make it even a more interesting read.There is also this 'question to consider' at the end of each purpose, that serves as good discussion topics with your friends.

The best part of the book is the way it deals with 'eternity'.It does not mince words yet the work is done gracefully.This book is not some Christian 'self-help' book aimed at topping best-sellers. Rather it is a no nonsense straight talk about the expectations of the Mighty Conqueror God.

I don't believe that our life should be 'purpose driven' rather it should be God-led.No one but the Holy Spirit can show us how to fulfill God's purpose in our life, but this book goes a long way in helping us realize that eternity is our goal and everything else we do on earth need to help us reach there.

Reference

*-Wikipedia