Day 40: Living with Purpose
And finally, brothers, our Purpose-Driven Life journey ends with Chapter 40.
Warren makes his final statement that living on purpose is the only way to really live. Everything else, he says, is just existing. I'd have to agree with his summation that most people struggle with three (3) basic issues in life:
1. Identity. Who am I?
2. Importance. Do I matter?
3. Impact. What is my place in life?
Indeed, these 3 Is are the issues that I realized disturbed me no end since my teens (No. 1) and increasingly in my adult life (Nos. 2 and 3). Particularly, No. 3 has plagued me especially now in my middle age years.
Warren also made the point that if we already know what God wants us to do and then we do it, we are actually blessed already just in the doing. As Jesus bid His apostles while washing their feet: "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17).
Yes, we can do good things in this life. I can even be good for goodness sake. Or for my sake. But fulfilling God's purposes in our lives is the bigger league. Nonetheless, it is easy to get distracted and forget these purposes and instead dwell on the mundane and ephemeral things that clutter and hassle our lives.
In order to stay focused on God's purposes for us, Warren says we must make a purpose statement for our lives and review it regularly. I subscribe to this regimen as I have from experience benefited so much from something akin to the device. Just a few years ago, I created a Vision Board (VB) for myself. At the start I simply listed the dreams/goals I wanted to achieve. This was actually inspired by Bro. Bo's "Dreams I Claim In Jesus' Name" novena which impressed me when I was just a new attendee at The Feast. Later I realized I was better off (given my personality) focusing on images so I cut out pictures equivalent to the dreams-in-words I wrote. Then I pasted each in a collage on an illustration board with me and my family in the center, and my visions radiating outward. I testify to the fact that some of the dreams/ goals have already happened.
But in PDL Warren is challenging me to make an altogether new and different VB. I feel that God is asking me to change my VB. He is asking me to radically (thus, our program's name "Radical" perhaps) alter my point of view. God is asking us to place Him in the center of our lives. Not us. Not even our families.
Thanks be to God for his servant Rick Warren as he gives us guideposts in creating our Life Purpose Statements (LPS). We are to ask:
1. What will be the center of my life?
2. What will be the character of my life?
3. What will be the contribution of my life?
4. What will be the communication of my life?
5. What will be the community of my life?
Warren adds a final aid. He says we should include any Scriptures that speak to us about each of these 5 Cs. Bottom line is that we should be pleasing God and not men. Not even ourselves. I must admit God's standards are indeed so high! I am dwarfed and humbled.
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MY RADICAL JOURNEY: 40 Days with The Purpose Driven Life
SpiritualMy spiritual journey from dark nights of the soul to finding God in all things and the courage to take the next steps...