Book #1 (Chazown)...

Chazown
Craig Groeschel

When I look back at my college days I can remember that I had a goal. I wanted to graduate. I wanted to get into the working world. I wanted to find a church where I could start doing what I felt God was calling me to do.

It didn't happen on accident. I had to work for it. I studied, I read, I volunteered. But it was worth it because I knew what I was aiming for.

It's amazing that 10 years later I can actually be in ministry, doing what I was trained for, when I suddenly realize that a lot of the purposefulness of my life has vacated the premises. That's not to say that my calling to ministry has changed, or that I've not been doing what I was hired to do. It just means that I've become less intentional with a number of areas in my life.

I grabbed this book by Groeschel and as I started reading it became apparent that this book would be more than a superficial read. This one was going to cut into the surface.

Everyone ends up somewhere. Few people end up somewhere on purpose. That's a theme that is repeated throughout the book. This is a call for people to step out of the accidental living of their lives and to step into living out a life with some purpose. A life with vision.

Groeschel encourages you to look at past experiences, your Spiritual gifts and your core values as you try to determine what your chazown (or God-given vision) is.

As you're walked through the process via the book or subsequent website, you are encouraged to come to a place where you try to put into words what it is that you exist to do. All the while paying attention to some key areas of life that Groeschel states are important for keeping ourselves on track: our relationship with God, our relationships with others, our financial health, our physical health, and our life's work.

What this book did was open my eyes to the fact that I, in many of these areas, was not being purposeful. In addition to reading the book, I'd recommend checking out the website. It sounded a little cheesy to me at first, but after I started to try some of the tools out, I saw a lot of potential. Both for myself, and for recommending this to others.

I think many of us could benefit from some more intentionality in our life, whether it be in our relationships, our physical health, our Spiritual walks or our knowledge of stats for our Fantasy sports league.