Before you dismiss this as yet another gushing book review, in which I will inevitably pour out my heart and declare that my life will never be the same again, let me stop you. There is no drama or exaggeration needed; this book will change your life. If you've ever found yourself wondering 'what's the point?', or 'why am I here?', then this is an absolute guarantee.
Firstly, I'd like to share how I came across The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, as I think this in itself is quite amazing. Over the last year, I have been battling various mental illnesses and have been lucky to have the support of a few close friends. One of these friends gave me a memory stick and told me to download the files and listen to the audio version of this book, as my concentration was so bad that I'd pretty much stopped reading all together (something I used to do avidly). This all seemed like a bit too much effort, so a few months went by and the memory stick sat on my desk gathering dust, despite regular prompting and encouragement from my friend. She eventually decided to come round and help me, but of course, my laptop decided to freeze and we didn't get very far. Then, over the Easter holidays, my family and I went to Bath to stay with some relatives. When we got there, my Nana told me that she had something for me. She said that her friend had woken in the middle of the night and started praying for me and my recovery. In doing this, she felt God telling her that I really needed to read this book called The Purpose Driven Life. So my Nana handed me the book, not knowing that its audio version was sitting on my desk at home. I'd always called myself 'a Christian', as that's how I've been brought up, but I didn't really have any real faith, so I was a little embarrassed, but realised that I would be pretty crazy not to read it now!
I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading Day 1 (the book is divided into 42 short chapters, which are intended to be read over 42 days), but I suppose I was quite sceptical; a book that claimed to answer the question 'What on earth am I here for?' on its front-cover was surely going to be full of over-dramatic and generalised statements about 'the purpose of life'. Despite sometimes going to church and calling myself religious, I'd become very doubtful about the existence of God; I just couldn't get my head around it and the whole idea seemed too good to be true. But Rick Warren's powerful opening statement, "It's not about you", hit me hard and I suddenly felt that it was ridiculous not to believe that there was a God. As I read, I did not feel as though I was being 'brain-washed' by persuasive language or religious jargon, I just felt as though questions and doubts that had held me back for so long were being directly answered and cleared up. Everything Rick said just made so much sense to me and I knew for certain that it was no coincidence that two completely unrelated people had felt I should read this book.
I am now on Day 32 and am loving my new routine of reading a chapter while I eat my breakfast every morning. I think when I finish, I'm just going to start again, because there is just so much to take away from it! These last 32 days have been absolutely fundamental in my recovery; I've seen so much personal growth and development and I'm finally starting to feel excited about my future. But while all this self-improvement is great, I don't just want to keep this to myself because, as I've realised, it's not really about me. I have such a strong urge to run around the streets crazily shouting, "Everyone has got to read this book!!!", but that probably wouldn't do much good. So I'm doing the next best thing and writing this in the hope that a few of you will take my advice and read The Purpose Driven Life. Even if one person reads it as a result, that will be great and that will hopefully mean that there will be one more follower of Jesus out there.
Why don't you be that one person?
Click here for a link to the book on Amazon.
Harriet x
