Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Lake Forest, Calif., with weekly attendance exceeding 50,000, wrote "The Purpose Driven Life" in 2002. According to Newsweek magazine (Dec. 13, 2005), it had at that time sold over 30 million copies and was on the New York Times Best Seller List for 82 weeks, a record number. He hit a nerve in people around the world and especially in the United States.
Pastor Warren's basic premise is that God has a plan or purpose for each of us. He used the Scripture verse found in Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not evil, to give you a future and a hope" (The Living Bible).
How do we find God's purpose and plans? Pastor Warren suggests that the answer to that all-important question is seeking the knowledge of God, of ourselves and of God's Word, the Bible. This is not knowing about God but knowing him through the life and teachings of his son, Jesus Christ. When we accept Christ as Lord of our lives, we come to know God as a loving Father, our Rock of Gibraltar, our guide and redeemer, our power source.
We need to know ourselves - our strengths and weaknesses, our talents and spiritual gifts and our calling. So much of this we find in God's Word. The Bible will truly become: "A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Isaiah 119:105).
During World War II, there were dark and anxious days in Great Britain as Hitler's German army had pulverized Poland and Czechoslovakia and moved into France. It seemed likely that Hitler would attack the British Isle next. King George VI addressed his countrymen and concluded with these words:
"I said to the men at the gate, 'Give me a light that I may go safely into the dark.' He replied, 'Put your hand into the hand of God. It will be better for you than a light and safer than a known way.'"