My Impressions: The Purpose Driven Life

I am rather cynical, narrow, and shallow.  Reading this book has been tough.  Writing about my thoughts about it, as it relates to religion makes it even tougher.  

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

 

Previously, I had Christian friends.  But I understood very little about the religion.  There were words and phrases that constantly got on my nerves.  What do you mean XXX!!  Why you say/do that!!  Since this book is in a way, a how-to-be-Christian book, it helped me understand the religion and mindset of Christians better.  A lot of the same “words” being used by Christians versus non-Christians actually mean very different things.  This is something we easily overlook when we take the meanings of words literally, when the context is very important. 

In terms of morals and the way to live life…  What bothers me is when friends ask me for advice and they may first ignore/refuse my suggestions.  But later on, they would do them because it is the right thing a Christian would do, or God and the Bible says so.  How come the same actions seem to be so much more profound if we add “God says so” or “the Bible” says so.  I did them long before I read the Bible…  This is really frustrating for me.  Anyway, some of these things include:

• Forgiving people (or, God has a plan for everything that happens)
• Stop worrying/resenting
• You’re not persuasive if you’re abrasive
• We were all created uniquely with our own flaws and strengths (or, God gave us our own unique identity)
• Screw nagging
• If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem
• Being the best version of you (or, God has not called you to be the best in the world at anything!  He has called you to be the best you can be.) 

This book is probably useful for two types of people.  First, people like me that are very new to Christianity and constantly getting angry talking to a Christian due to the lack of mutual understanding.  Second, this book is also very useful to strong Christian believers.  A lot of these motivational/finding your strengths type of self-help tools sound so much better and convincing to a Christian when God says it is the right thing to do. 

Religion is such a tough subject like politics and martial arts.  One of my old teachers used to say, “People seek confirmation, not information.”  How many people that argue about these topics really have an open mind and could change their stances?  Instead, we just add a lot of abrasion and noise and damage a lot of relationships.  Live and let live.