This post is part of our "Purpose Driven Life" book study, the first official Christian Boylove Forum book study. If you would like to join in, do not be discouraged by the thought that it's too late. The book is designed to be read one chapter per day but we only study one chapter every Monday and Thursday in this forum, so if you read it at the book's recommended pace, you will catch up with us very quickly. If you do not own the book, you can read the first few chapters for free here: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/AboutUs/AboutTheBook/FirstSevenChapters.htm

This chapter talks about giving glory to God in how we live our lives. I think this is a very importnat point and Rick Warren does fairly good job of describing how we should glorify God by fulfilling our purposes. But one thing that the book says sparked my interest particularly. Rick Warren describes how all of creation gives glory to God by doing what it was designed to do; birds glorify God through flying, chirping, nesting, etc. In past weeks we have discussed how whether through genetic means or the environment he put us in, God intended for us to be Boylovers. Does that mean that by living as a BL we glorify God? If so, what does a BL lifestyle that glorifies the Father look like? Does this also mean that by denying who you are and rejecting or hiding that side of yourself you are refusing to glorify God?

I believe that the above question is a resounding yes, God did create you with the intention you live as a BL. By rejecting who God made you to be, you are rejecting God's plan for your life and refusing to bring to glory to him. What exactly a BL lifestyle that glorifies God looks like is a much more difficult question to answer. I am open to a variety of viewpoints on that one.

The other thing this chapter does is challenge us to stop living for ourselves and to start living for God. For a long time this was easy for me. It's easy to live for God when you don't have much else going for you. But as I've been more blessed over time, it has become more difficult. Whereas serving God was once easy because the alternative was to sit at home not doing much of anything, when I acquired a YF and the question became serve God vs hang out with my yf, it became a lot easier to be selfish. It's kind of interesting how there is this inverse relationship between being blessed and the willingness to serve God. I guess it's for our own good that God once in a while takes everything away to remind us who it was that gave it to us in the first place.


to participate actively in the book study, feel free to respond to this post or to any of the questions Cat or anyone else posts below. You don't necessarily need to respond to what is written on this post, you may prefer instead to talk about the parts of the chapter that spoke to you even if it wasn't something mentioned on this post. You may also pose your own discussion questions.