Sorry I haven't posted in a while I didn't realize it had been so long.
Years ago I picked up The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Rick Warren is the
megaevangelist who heads up the
Sadleback Church. He delivered the invocation at the inauguration of President Obama. I picked up the book because it seemed everyone was reading it and I am prone to do what everyone else does. I didn't get around to reading it right away and when I realized that it was a christian book I put it back on the shelf. Recently I picked it up again, probably due to the press Rick Warren was getting. I wanted to read his book to see what he had to say.
I got about four chapters in and decided it was a bunch of
hypocritical drivel. In the introduction he writes that he has been praying for me. Me, Jen, the author of this blog, he has been praying for me. I never met Rick Warren but he is praying for me. I'm kinda touched by that.
He writes:
"As I wrote this book, I often prayed that you (me) would experience the incredible sense of hope, energy and joy that comes from discovering what God put you (me) on this planet to do."
I'm all for hope, energy and joy and having an idea of why we are here, me at least, is a good thing too. If any of you figure out why I am here please let me know since I haven't figured it out yet. I'm glad that Rick is praying for me. I'll take prayers from anyone. I say that in jest but seriously if someone goes to the trouble of praying for me I am humbled. Really.
The book is set up to be read one chapter at a time. One chapter per day in fact. I cheated and read several chapters in one day so don't tell. I was a little irritated to find in the first chapter that it isn't all about me. He says that. "It's not about you." the opening line of the first chapter says it is not all about me even though he just got finished saying he was praying for me and that he was glad I found his book. I was a little confused with the bait and switch but I let it go for the sake of research.
He talks about the ability of people to discover their purpose
prior to his writing this book. They were all wrong because they were speculating, even the best philosophers didn't
know what it was all about, they could only guess. Rick
knows, its all about pleasing God. We were all put here to please God.
That's a good argument if you
believe in God but what if you don't or are at least suspicious? When I was a kid I thought of God, and what little I knew of him came from Sunday School stories that were dumbed down, not unlike myself when I was playing Barbies. I set up the situation they were in and controlled it completely. Unless I was playing with a friend and then I had to bend a little. I decided if Ken got to go out with Barbie. I decided what house or vehicle they were going to spend the day in. When my friend Tricia got the plane Barbie and Ken spent weeks on that plane. It never
occurred to me until I spent hours on the tarmac waiting to get clearance to take off what a drag that was. Ken and Barbie didn't seem to mind however. When I was finished playing with the dolls I threw them in a box and forgot about them. Sometimes the dog got a hold of them and ate their feet. If I had been paying attention I might have done something but by the time the dog started chewing on them I didn't care much about Barbies anymore.
I had maybe 5 or 6 Barbies. I played with them for at least four years. After that I was done. I have no desire to play with Barbies anymore. I realize I am not God and that if there is a god he probably has a long attention span than I do, but forever is a long commitment.
Anyway, I have gone off topic, let's assume that we are here for God's pleasure.
If God made us all to entertain him then the mess that is going on down here makes sense. If we are here because he loves us and created us in his image then there are a few things that aren't right.
To be continued tomorrow...