Interview with by Rick Warren

"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not 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 trillions 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 go 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 your 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, II 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.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

October 28, 1955

This nurse appears less than impressed with the beauty of the new baby at Haskell Memorial Hospital 53 years ago today.
I am having a wonderful 53rd birthday. I slept late. Brian fixed my breakfast and though the eggs were solid, rubbery disks, I appreciated the thought. We went to Lion’s Club for lunch and everyone was chatty. We even played the “I Never…” game. Bree suggested that next week we try the “Chuck, Date, or Marry” game. I doubt that idea will fly. (When it is your turn, you name three people to another participant who then tells the group which of those three he/she would chuck, which he’d date, and which he’d marry.)

Brian asked me what I’d like to do this afternoon/evening. I decided I’d like to help him work on our Christmas Parade float, which will be a “vintage” white church building with stained glass windows built onto a trailer. There are only a few available work days between now and the first weekend of December and today is beautiful for outside work.

I can't remember how I felt when the nurse appeared so disgusted with my looks. It may have affected me greatly.

(I removed political comments ONLY because this is linked to our Church's blog. I don't bring up the topic of politics but don't object to that discussion. I wish there were more opportunities to discuss the issues.)

"BLOGS" I Know

I enjoy hearing a mom describe her day with her toddler or see pictures a Memaw has posted. I like to learn how a book or a particular study has made a difference in someone's life. I like to hear other points of view. I particularly enjoy reading the words of a gifted writer who shares my point of view. I don't have that talent. I have no toddler nor any other situation in my life that anyone could possibly consider exciting. Never the less, I think I'll "Blog".
I grew up two miles south of Munday, Texas. I was (am) blessed with loving, giving parents. I married just a few days after high school graduation and I really do have the best husband ever. Five years later, we had our first son who is 29. Our daughter is 27 and youngest son 23. My husband has been an insurance agent in Haskell over 31 years. We have been richly blessed with family and friends. My parents and my sister and her family also live here.
Though my daughter is here presently, my children left Haskell after HHS graduation. Brian is retiring next year and we persuaded Bree to return to Haskell and try insurance, thinking she might want to take her dad's place. She has decided to become a physical therapist. She and Casey, who works for State Farm in the metroplex, are Aggies and Ryan is a Coast Guard officer after graduating with a civil engineering degree from the Coast Guard Academy.
God has been so good to me. My parents, my husband, my children, my friends... And I have lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins with whom to share life. I consider one of my most precious blessings the fact that all my life, I have been in places where God's Word was taught.
Brian has been the pastor of the church (FBC) in Peacock, 45 miles west of us for 5 plus years and after retiring, he hopes to finish his masters in theology and be in full time ministry. I am excited to see what He has for us.