The Ultimate Dress Rehearsal

I received an email recently from one of my good friends. It contained this interview. I was very moved and I found that everything this man said is true. I also took the time to read the scripture, and I couldn't agree more. If I were to die tomorrow, I wouldn't necessarily feel like I lived the happiest life. However, I would feel that I have lived a full life. Happiness doesn't always bring contentment. Am I content though? Far from. But I would be content that I have tried my hardest and I've given it my everything. For now, I will fall asleep next to my rosary, as I search for what to do next.


In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of The
Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren said:

"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond as follows -
in a nutshell, Life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last on earth forever, because eventually, 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 "forever" 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 have just come 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, in Christ-likeness.

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 mountain top, 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 in 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 fame that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or fame for you to own an 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, fame and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me - Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.


"Be kind. Everyone you meet is having a hard time.""