My notes and thoughts for the first week of going through "The Purpose Driven Life." When I say "you," I am usually writing it as if I were speaking to Julie. She was undeniably the only person on my mind at this time. Feel free to email me any of your thoughts and how they compare to mine as well.

 

Purpose Driven Life Day 1 (12/26/2016):

  • It's not about me.
  • That's pretty much the biggest change in perspective that I needed this whole time. Especially because I am pride and ego driven.
  • QTC (Question to Consider): I can remind myself that life is about living for God and not myself by remembering the 5 pillars of my life
    1) Songs
    2) The Storm
    3) Angels
    4) Plastics
    5) Julie

 

 

PDL Day 2 (12/27/2016):

  • I am not an accident. I revised some of my views about what is said in this chapter. It still doesn't make total sense to me, but I'll take it for what it is for now and try to figure out the meaning as I go. How do you (God) plan everything out, but still let people make their own choices away from you? But then also say that you accounted for human error, etc? Iono, seems like a lot more than my mind can handle right now. For now, I'll take it with a leap of faith and hope I come around to the answer later. That's a hard thing to do in itself as well.
  • QTC: I'm coming to grips with how sometimes I can be so selfish, self-centered, sneaky, inconsiderate, etc. Why did God have to make me that way? It's everything that has caused problems in my relationships. But I guess I can't really blame God for it. It is me who makes the decisions to do those things. So maybe it is the challenge of my life to surmount those things so that I can find true happiness with God. And maybe with you if He so wills it. It's a new interesting way of looking at that problem. We'll see how it goes.

 

 

PDL Day 3 (12/28/2016):

Wow, such a powerful chapter. I totally wasn't expecting it and I wasn't expecting it to tie in so closely to everything that was going on with me.

  • "You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you."
    • This explains why I'm so calm now despite our breakup. I know in my mind that there is a purpose for my life as set by God, so I don’t have to worry about it. Obviously, I hope it involves you, but if it doesn't that's okay too.
    • I need to learn to be okay with everything that has happened with us. That brings us to his first point. People are driven by guilt.
      • I was driven by guilt at the end of our relationship. I wanted to give to you so badly and make you happy because I realized how much crap I had put you through. But I also thought about this today at Target. I can't let that guilt drive what I do anymore. I have forgiven myself. If we ever get back together, it has to be a fresh start. I would have to invest in the relationship because I love you in that moment, not because I felt like I owed you something from the past.
    • The thoughts on resentment are a nice reminder for me to try to let things go if they aren't addressed.
    • I used to be driven by fear. My mom was very controlling and its funny because that's what made me driven by fear later in life. The fear of failure.
    • The benefits of purpose all make sense, but the most interesting he wrote about were the two questions that are assumed to be asked at the time of judgment.
      • What did you do with Jesus?
      • What did you do with what I gave you?
      • Those questions were something I've wanted to know for a very long time.
  • QTC: The driving force for the majority of my life was fear of failure. Then it was for approval and attention. Now I want it to be to glorify God through being a good husband, a good surgeon, a loving father, a good friend, a great president, or really whatever God has in store for me. I hope his purpose for me involves making the world a better place through my businesses and inventions.

 

 

PDL 4 (12/29/2016)

  • We are made to last forever. Everything I do from now on should take in perspective not only the rest of my life, but eternity.

QTC: I should stop focusing so much on things that don't necessarily bring meaning or happiness to my life. I should stop doing more and start doing less overall, so I can devote time to things that really matter. I should start focusing on building relationships, something I really have put off for way too long. Hopefully, those people will join me in heaven, and we'll be able to share eternity in each other's company.

 

 

PDL 5 (12/31/2016)

Didn't get to read yesterday because I got home at 1am after doing the case and getting food

  • Life on earth is a test
    • A very important test is how you act when you can't feel God's presence in your life.
      • This is super weird because I was actually just pondering this yesterday before I scrubbed in for that 9 hour case. I don't feel God's presence as much as I did during the events of last weekend, but I knew that I should still continue doing what I'm supposed to.
      • "The more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be."
        • Wow, this is the line from Spiderman that I gave to you when you wanted to paint something. "With great power comes a greater responsibility." So it is with God.
        • I just had another crazy epiphany (coming back to this after writing it earlier)- when I was talking to your dad about why we aren't helping other people around the world, etc., he kept saying that it's not his job to take care of those people. Let the people who's calling it is to do that, do that. That statement bothered me a lot when he initially said it.
          • Now it makes much more sense. We need to do what we can with the talents and circumstances we are given. You cannot help everyone everywhere, and that is okay. What matters is that you use your God-given talents to do what you can to serve Him.
  • QTC: The biggest tests from God that I was given recently are the two years that I hadn't matched and was struggling to find my way with a career. The other recent one is how I handle myself now that we aren't together.
    • The greatest matters that God has entrusted to me. Plastics. Politics? I'm going to be a leader, but for what? Ministry?

 

 

PDL 6 (12/31/2016)

Making up for yesterday

  • "David prayed, 'Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here for but a moment more.'"
  • "The pursuit of happiness is not what life is about." Man, just when I thought I figured out what life is supposed to be about lol
  • "In order to keep us from being too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life - longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity."
    • This explains why bad things are "allowed" to happen. We still don't know the greater purpose behind a lot of things. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to be able to see the reason. Sometimes we aren't. At least at the end, we'll know that it'll just be the beginning.
    • I look forward to eternity with all of the people I love and care about.
    • When life gets tough or you are full of doubt, remember that you are not home yet.
  • I had a scary thought with this chapter, mostly because it means that there will be extremely difficult things ahead in life for me. But then I remember that God will give me the strength to be able to deal with all of them.
  • I also realized as part of this chapter (more so because of listening to all this Christian music) why it was so important for you to be able to talk to your future husband about God, and why it was important that both of you/us depend on Him. I think it'd actually finally be able to do that.
  • QTC: It means I need to live for God. It means I need to live with the purpose of preparing for eternity. To remember that my time here is only temporary and that I shouldn't dedicate my life to only temporary things - work, games, social media. Build relationships. Do good/do His will. Travel, experience as much of what he made as you can while you can and use it to grow and become a better person.

 

 

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PDL 7 (1/1/2017)

  • Sin = failing to give God glory
    • Sin is self-centeredness
  • We bring glory to God by fulfilling the purpose he made us for.
    • Same with animals. They bring glory to God by just being birds, ants, etc.
  • Worship God to glorify him; motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, NOT duty.
    • It is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving Him, and giving ourselves to be used for his purposes.
  • Glorify God by loving other believers (not everyone?!)
    • You now belong to the family of God. "Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified."
      • This is why I need to stop making fun of [a certain attending] lol. Funny, but not funny.
  • Glorify God by becoming more spiritually mature.
    • This means becoming more like Jesus in how we think, feel, and act.
  • Glorify God by serving others with our gifts.
    • We all got unique gifts from God.
    • We were not given these gifts to be selfish with them. We were given them to benefit others, just like other were given abilities to benefit us.
  • Glorify God by telling others about Him.
  • The implications of what Jesus decided to do are incredible. He stood at a fork in the road just before his death and was faced with a choice to either fulfill his purpose and bring glory to God or to shrink back and live a comfortable, self-centered life.
    • Jesus was probably like Neo in the Matrix, except he was the one who finally chose correctly lol. Nvmd, it's not like that at all.
  • God will provide you with everything you need as long as you chose to live for Him.
  • QTC: I should be aware of God's glory in the work that I do as well as with my relationships. Try to be more like Jesus, love everyone, and tell others about him as it pertains to my story. I should also get baptized. That's why I'm reading this chapter on 1/1/17 after they've talked about baptisms and whatever during today's message. And why Julie also responded to me today that she would try to be there for it even though I thought she wouldn't respond to me in an attempt to just ignore me.

 

 

Week 2: You were Planned for God's Pleasure

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