Rick Warren: A Life of Purpose

A Life of Purpose

What is the purpose of life? This is a hard question, no doubt about it. It's one of those "deep" questions have a hard time thinking and answering about, because there is no definite answer. This is because the answer depends on every individual and their outlook on life.

Rick Warren, who is a church pastor, is famous for writing a book called "The Purpose-Driven Life," which was at one time the most popular book in the world. Why would it be popular? It is because people WANT to learn the significance of life. They WANT to have something real for them to hold on to. Warren believes people like his book because they have spiritual emptiness, and they want a drive to get them through every day, and every routine. Warren states that, although there are those people who want a definite drive, it is impossible to provide everyone with a drive that will help an individual prosper and be happy. He said that there were no "accidental people" God made when he was creating, and that all people matter. His inspirational belief and the mention of God is brave for Warren to do, because God is a touchy subject in many countries.



Something that stood out to me during Warren's talk was his reference to the Bible passage of Moses and the burning bush. God, being present in the burning bush (that was on fire but did not burn) asked Moses what was in his hand when Moses neared. Of course, God knew what Moses was holding, he is God after all. In this passage, God asked Moses this question for his sake. Warren stated that "what's in our hand" contains our identity, income, and influence.

Influence. This word describes every human being, because every being plays a part in our World. Someone with greater amounts of influence can influence great amounts of followers then there are others like shepherds, who watch for their sheep. Warren's remarkableness is without a doubt there. He is a reverse tither, meaning he gives 90% of his income away and lives off of the 10%. He lived what he believed, and did his TEDtalk based on leading by example.

One thing Warren lacked would be chemistry with the crowd. The whole 21 minutes of the talk, Warren sat in a chair, sometimes slouching or leaning forward, but never fully engaging the crowd. I feel like if he had been more charismatic, he would have had a stronger reaction from the people.

What matters to Warren is hard to find, because he talks about many small ideas that leads to one big one. So Rick Warren's big idea is to be selfless in what you do on Earth, plain and simple. All he talks about in his talk; tithing, influencing others, doing things to help his community, it all leads to the same picture. What matters to Rick Warren is helping and serving everyone you can here on Earth to give back to generations to come.

First 7 chapters of "The Purpose-Driven Life"
Rick Warren's TEDtalk