A Purpose Driven Life

Subject: An Interview with Rick Warren

This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life" author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. His wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me "What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act- the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems. Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys- you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountain top, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always a bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centredness, which is my pain to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of the hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with both the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, 2 Corinthians 9 and Psalms 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for posessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes(for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.


Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD.

This is beautiful and food for the soul. A friend sent it to me, I shared it with you, now pick someone you want to bless. God loves you and so do I, have a blessed Lord's day!

Adapted from an email courtesy of a good friend of mine. Thank you, my good friend. Hope that it will touch your life as much as it touched mine.

http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/ : A site by Rick Warren himself. Drop by and take a look if you feel the need to do so =)

God bless.

You Are The Contender!

The way I see it, there are two ways to go by. Live your life wallowing in the fact that life isn't always gonna be a bed of roses OR live life making the best of those bumpy roads that you're gonna have to drive through at some point of your journey.
To choose to go through life all grumpy and bitter, dwelling on the fact that life bites you hard on the rear end sometimes, is just as good as throwing in the towel before even entering the fighting ring.

Life is sometimes alot like a boxing match (I know, I know, such queer analogies, but just follow me on this one ;p).You are the boxer and with every boxer there is a coach who will stand by the sidelines and cheers you on. God is that coach.
Now as we all know, no boxing match is ever easy. Strategy. Strength. Determination. Coordination. All essential factors in boxing. And while in the ring, all odds are split 50/50. Sometimes we get an opportunity at our opponent and we make our move. Striking at him with all you've got. You rise up on top for a moment and all odds appear to favour you. But then at the very next second, an opportunity could open up for your opponent and it'll be his turn to strike back. And that is when we fall. Fall down hard. It gets so critical sometimes in the ring because when the opponent gets a chance at you, there are high chances that you may be severely injured.
Now you feel light headed and signal your coach to pull you out of the match. But he won't. He insists you stay in the game. He insists you fight to the end. He won't let you forfeit.
You beg your coach once again to pull you out of the match. He once again turns you down in a heartbeat. He won't let you quit now. Not after all the effort you've put in. Guess what he does instead. He'll call you to a corner. And quickly he will whisper something in your ear. Strategies on how you can win this. You muster what's left of your strength and you go in for the kill. All throughout the match your coach cheers you on from the sidelines, telling you that you CAN do it! And sure enough you win the match. You're exhausted but somehow when that bell is rung and the winner's name is announced, fulfilment and self-satisfaction fill your heart.

Now your coach could've easily pulled you out of the game. Heck, he could've even climbed into the ring and knock the guy out for you, which I'm sure he's plenty capable of doing. But guess what, he let you fall to see you grow. Because now you leave the boxing ring a stronger and better fighter.


Yes, God fights your fights and wins your battles for you. He protects you and He will save you from harm. But then we will wonder, everytime we fall at the likes of the world, why isn't God helping me fight this one? Why won't he pull me out of the match?
Guess what, He IS helping you fight this fight! He stands by the ring, shouting words of encouragement, letting you know "YOU CAN DO IT!" He tells you how you can win this fight. He whispers you strategies that will lead you to victory. All you have to do is open your heart to His words and listen carefully to what He's trying to tell you. He won't pull you out of the game because He won't let you give up! He wants you to fight with all that you have and come out stronger! Better! Than ever before. For after every storm comes a rainbow. And now you are left with something to add to your star of greatness.