The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley
When reading The Principle of the Path you must keep in mind “simplicity”. Please don’t take that as a deterrent in any way. As has been stated in other reviews on this book and is even implied by the author himself it is pretty simple. “Direction – not intention – determines our destination.” I read that and I thought “well, huh? that’s it?!? It’s only been 14 pages!” But trust me it is worth the read. You can’t begin this book expecting some great exploration of theology but very often we don’t need that to open our eyes.
While this book is written by a pastor and that could be a turn-off for some do not let that stop you. Also, as Andy himself states this is not a self-help book. That may be correct in the true sense of the meaning. But, the contents can help you not only discover direction but help you identify misdirection already taken and avoid it in the future.
I love to take away things from every book I read and Principle did not disappoint. While I took away a few things I feel the most important, for me, is a new look at Proverbs 3:6 “in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” But through a more precise definition of “acknowledge” Andy shows us that we should not take this to mean that God will straighten out whatever path we choose choose but rather, He will make the best path obvious.
I can’t say this book was what I had expected after reading previous Andy Stanley books. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this eye opening, inspiring easy read. I would recommend it to any and all especially those early on in their journey.
LifE: better choices for a better life
What an awesome message series we finished up Sunday. “LifE”. It was about making better choices for a better life and how right in the middle of life is “if”. In the videos for this series you got to see Brian Wright and myself play the good versus evil roles for our people wondering what “if” they should choose.
I have participated in alot of the videos over the last few years at the Ridge and I fear I have been typecast. I’ve been an over-protective dad, a bad husband, a gladiator nanny, a terrorist, a mean drill sergeant and now Satan.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love to be used by God. It truly fills me up when He can take me and use me as a tool for reaching others and planting seeds. However, children are starting to fear me. While this does have it’s advantages it does start to get a little bothersome when children run screaming at the site of you. Well, not really I kind of get a kick out of it (is that wrong?). A few weeks ago my wife, Jenni, was standing in the lobby at church talking to a new guest. I walked up and said hi and he said “aren’t you the Devil?” Now, that’s probably not the first time that phrase has been uttered about me, but it was really cool because he had learned about the Ridge through the website and the videos we had posted there.
An interesting part about this series of videos is that Brian had to go back and re-shoot most of his lines. We did all of mine at one time (mainly because I didn’t want to dye my beard too many times). As you know, Brian is great in front of and behind the camera and the main reason he had to re-shoot was because we found it hard to come up with his characters responses. It was way too easy to come up with my responses. This got me really thinking… Do you see the analogy here? It’s very easy to respond or react in the “wrong way”. The wrong way often seems more appealing, at first. It feels like the more natural choice sometimes. It is certainly the easier choice most of the time, until the consequences start. But we have to think about the right choice. We have to ponder the outcome if we make the wrong choice.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could reach a point where the right choices came natural and the wrong choices never even got considered. I believe we can reach that point but not on our own. We can do it through Christ and His strength. Then He can use us to show others the right way. Remember the deoderant commercial “never let ‘em see you sweat” well through Jesus we can do that. If we can keep Him in the beginning of our “if” then only the right choice remains. Remember the next time an “if” pops up let Christ show you the right choice and in turn show others and maybe they will see His light in that choice.
… and if you make the wrong choice don’t say “the Rick made me do it!”
