The Purpose-Driven Life

The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren

This book is intended to be read one chapter a day for 40 days. From day 1 to around day 30, I wrote a bad review in my head, intending to post it here, yet still willing to give it a chance by finishing the book. My reviews usually went something like this:

"This book is bullsh. It is worse than bullsh. At least bullsh can be used to fertilize crops. This book isn't even useful for that."

My problem with the book stemmed from the author presenting his opinions as fact, and with the full expectation that everyone reading his book will agree with him. I also was very annoyed by the use of catchy phrases that every preacher likes to use in the pulpit as if they came up with it themselves, and that none of the ideas presented in the book were new ideas to me.

However, on day 40, while still disliking the book, I was struck by the thought that every once in a while, its a good thing to hear something you've already heard before, as in some cases it seems to reinforce it.

I am still not sure if I would recommend the book itself to people, because it seems to have been written to cover a broad audience, and therefore doesn't really go into specifics about finding your purpose in life. It basically just says "Use these tips to personalize it for yourself" where I like a book that gives examples like "Mary has these hobbies and went through this experience to find out that God has called her to be THIS..."

If you are searching for a book to help you find out what God's plan is for your life, talk to me about what exactly you are looking for and I will tell you if this is a good book for you. It was not a good book for me, but it hit the NY Times Best-Seller list, so it was good for like 40 million people. I just wasn't one of them.