The Purpose-Driven Life

I finished two books today...one of the books, though, was started waaaaaaay back in March, when I began this project. I typically read some kind of devotional/inspirational type book after reading a book, usually just a chapter at a time. Many spiritual books require a greater amount of time for reflection than I typically allow myself for a book. I don't want to speed through a powerful, potentially life-changing book! Well, back in March I needed a new inspirational book and upon noticing The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren on our bookshelf, I figured it was time to give that book a read. I mean, I'm only like 6 or 7 years late. Hah!

Warren intended for The Purpose-Driven Life to be read one chapter a day over the course of 40 days. I spread it out a bit more than that, but I don't really think that affected it much.

The Purpose-Driven Life guides the reader through a series of what you might call Christian "basics," such as how to worship, how to deal with other people, how to minister within the church, etc. It is chunked into 8-day segments that deal with a theme such as discipleship or evangelization. Each theme is broken down day-by-day into mini-lessons. Each chapter is rich with Bible references.

I found The Purpose-Driven Life to be very simple and basic. There were a few chapters that challenged or inspired me but most of it contained messages I've heard a hundred times. That said, I think this book could be extremely valuable to many people. I would have loved to have read this in high school, when I was first learning how to really love Jesus. You could basically see this book as "Being a Christian 101." Easy to read, this book could appeal to anyone from high school and up.

For its purpose, this book excels - with one exception. There are several points in which Warren points people to look into supplementary material or visit his website. That's shameless advertisement and a tacky way to encourage people to spend more $$$. Thankfully, these occurrences are fairly rare and only irked me a few times.

If you are new to loving Jesus, then this book is for you! For the more spiritually mature, your time is probably better spent in a richer text, but reading this book could still impact you - just in a smaller way.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

41 books, 145 days...at this rate I'll read over 100 books in one year!