Purpose Driven Life

"This is an incredible interview with Rick Warren , "Purpose DrivenLife " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. His wifenow has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales. In theinterview 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 Godwants 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 amgoing 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 willdo forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until youfigure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series ofproblems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, oryou're getting ready to go into another one.The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character thanyour comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than Heis in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here onearth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow incharacter, in Christ likeness.This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also thetoughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think thatlife was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you goto the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind oflike two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you havesomething good and something bad in your life. No matter how goodthings are in your life, there is always something bad that needs tobe worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there isalways 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-centeredness, "whichis my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways toget rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God andothers.We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds ofthousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy forher. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthenedher character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given hera 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 the good is harder. Forinstance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought alot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don'tthink God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you tolive a life of ease.So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notorietyand influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decidewhat to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change ourlifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from thechurch.Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Planto plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, andeducate the next generation.Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since Istarted the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to beable to serve God for free.We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Oram 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, ifI don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love Youbetter. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He'smore interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're calledhuman 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, Ijust wanted to share it with you. God loves you and so do I, have ablessed Lord's day!