Interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren

From My InBox:

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.

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.

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.

If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen.

But it might be nice to pass it on to a friend....just like I have done.

God Bless,