Interview with Rick Warren

Author of "The Purpose Driven Life"

interviewed by Paul Bradshaw

In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of

"The Purpose Driven Life," Pastor Warren 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

trillion 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 got to the mountaintop, 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

something 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-

centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my

pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is

to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of 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 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 you to 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, Corinthians 9 and Psalm 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 possessions?

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.

======================================

Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life" is probably the best
book I've ever read other than that Bible.  I highly recommend you

get your own copy.  You can use this crazy-long link to get it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310205719/qid=1123889800/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0728181-1958258?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

In addition, I started a new blog recently to help promote Rick's
awesome book at http://yourpurposedrivenlife.blogspot.com/.
Stop by and check it out.

=================================================

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