Day One: It’s Not About Me

Well, hello! My name is Kevin Nardi, and we are going on a journey together! It will be fun, I promise you, cross my heart. The name of this journey is Around The Purpose-Driven Life in Forty Days. I’m sorry, did I say journey? I meant journal. They are basically the same thing.

We are going on this journey (-al) because purpose is hard. People are all like, “What is the meaning of life and stuff?” well let me tell you, it is to glorify God, but that is the easy part. So, Christians then, they’re like, okay, the meaning of life–life’s purpose–is to glorify God. I get that.

Then, In what way should I glorify God? [Editor's note: I hope you like italics. Because I sure do.]

Well, that’s where we’re gonna start. I am going to read this here book thingy, here–maybe once a day, maybe once a month, but gul-dernit I’ll get through it–then I’m gonna come on to the Internets and tell you what the book says and what I think about it, and maybe ask some questions to nobody in particular.

Just so we’re clear on how this is going to work.

And now on with the show!

Day One: For Reals This Time

Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.
-Colossians 1:16b (The Message)

Monsieur Warren (pronounced wɔ̃ʁɑ̃ː) begins with a chapter entitled, “It All Starts with God,” but I really prefer his first sentence: “It’s not about you” (17). In other words, stop trying to look inside yourself for answers, because you have about as much chance of finding them there as finding chocolate in space, okay, that is a bad analogy but you get it oh hey chocolate, I am hungry.

You, sans God, are worthless and pointless. You have about as much cosmic appeal as solar radiation. If, on the grand scheme, we are simply, as Carl Sagan so poetically puts it, “star stuff,” comma, then you aren’t worth any more than your constituent atoms. You aren’t worth much more than water, air, and ash. What purpose could you possibly have? Or, to ask the more common secular version of the question (which assumes the absence of a creator), What meaning could you possibly find in life? What meaning or purpose can we ascribe to (what amounts to) a very fortuitous arrangement of basic elementary particles? Perhaps it would be helpful here to quote the Bard:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Adding the parenthetical without God.

Mr. (Pastor? Pr.?) Warren does a very good job of delineating precisely what is wrong with most people’s answers to the question of the meaning of life–they speculate. Almost every time, you’ll either hear, “I don’t know,” or something that begins with something along the lines of, “Well, I think that…” or “I feel like….” In other words, they’re just guessing. I mean, wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way to be sure of what life is abo–oh wait there is. That’s another underlined sentence: “Ask God” (20). You don’t have to guess! There is an all-powerful, omniscient Being that I know who would be glad to give you the answer, and in fact, He already has. That is because He is all-powerful and all-knowing and He figured you’d be asking that question one day, so He wrote it down and put it in a time capsule for you in advance. It is prepackaged for your convenience in the only book ever written by an omniscient being.

So, that’s the meat of it. Here is where I respond.

The subject of this chapter is at once both mind-numbingly obvious and infinitely profound. It is the kind of thing that, if you are a Christian, you don’t need to be told, but you do. The difference being that fine line between heart and head. That God gives all things purpose, and that nothing has any purpose without Him–these are easy to understand. But living as if only God mattered? That’s hard to do. I think 99.999 percent of my day is concerned with serving myself. How do I find the reciprocal of that?

Whatever happens, I know it’s going to be a long road.

God, I want to search for my purpose wholly in you. Bless my struggle against my own flesh and blood, and grant me victory in the battle against apathy and disobedience. Make me uncomfortable when I am not seeking after you. Light a fire under me, and in me. Help me to never stop running to you as fast as I can. And, please, give me the time and strength to make it through this book and blog, because I won’t make it without you. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Epilogue: But Wait, There’s More

Thanks for reading. You can probably expect pretty much this style from here on out, but without the before and after bits. Thanks, Ernie, for getting me started on this, and thanks to Pastor Rick Warren for giving me something to chew on. And by the way, his name isn’t really French. I’m sure it’s just wɔrən.