感謝友人轉寄來的《標竿人生》作者訪談錄。文字簡潔優美，很值得朗誦一下。
也許很多朋友沒有讀過《標竿人生》。兩三年前在台大與珊如老師大學老師查經班讀書會，我們讀過一下。沒想到變成暢銷書，牧師作者變得富有 (歐 寫對書 會富有 ：))不過，牧師作者分享：財富並不能使人生的其他的生活考驗消除，讚美、信任、追尋、禱告、感謝是人的日常功課。
這個簡短的訪談錄，分享生活和生命的價值觀，還有面對困境的處置態度。簡短的訪談，文字簡潔美麗，更值得朗讀一下呢。 -- m.m.
This is a great interview with Rick Warren. He wrote the Purpose Driven Life.
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
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, 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 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. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
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.
If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it will just be nice to pass it on to a friend....just like I have done.
God's Blessings… 這是對里克沃倫的一次很棒的採訪。他寫了《目標驅動的生活》。
瑞克·沃倫
您將享受 Rick Warren 的新見解，他的妻子現在患有癌症，而他從圖書銷售中獲得了“財富”。這是對 Rick Warren 的一次絕對令人難以置信的簡短採訪，他是“目標驅動的生活”的作者和加利福尼亞州馬鞍峰教會的牧師。
在 Paul Bradshaw 與 Rick Warren 的採訪中，Rick 說：
人們問我，人生的目的是什麼？
我的回答是：簡而言之，生命就是為永恆做準備。我們不是被造要永遠長存的，上帝希望我們在天堂與他同在。
總有一天我的心會停止跳動，那將是我身體的終結——但不是我的終結。
我可能會在地球上活 60 到 100 年，但我將在永恆中度過數万億年。這是熱身動作——彩排。上帝希望我們在地球上實踐我們將在永恆中永遠做的事情。
我們是由上帝為上帝而造的，除非你弄清楚這一點，否則生活將毫無意義。
生活是一系列問題：要麽你現在處於其中，剛剛走出一個，要麽你準備進入另一個。
原因是神對你的品格比對你的安慰更感興趣。上帝更關心使你的生活成為聖潔，而不是讓你的生活快樂。
我們在地球上可以相當快樂，但這不是生活的目標。目標是在品格上成長，在基督的樣式中成長。
過去的一年是我一生中最偉大的一年，也是最艱難的一年，我的妻子凱患上了癌症。
我曾經認為生活是高山和低谷——你經歷了一段黑暗的時光，然後你去山頂，來來回回。我不相信了。
與其說生活是山丘和山谷，我相信它有點像鐵軌上的兩條鐵軌，而且在任何時候，你的生活中都有好的也有壞的。
不管你的生活有多好，總有一些不好的事情需要解決。
不管你生活中有多麼糟糕的事情，總有一些好事你可以感謝上帝。
您可以專注於您的目的，也可以專注於您的問題：
如果你專注於你的問題，你就會以自我為中心，這是我的問題，我的問題，我的痛苦。但擺脫痛苦的最簡單方法之一是將注意力從自己身上轉移到上帝和他人身上。
我們很快發現，儘管有成千上萬人的祈禱，但上帝不會醫治凱或讓她輕鬆 - 這對她來說非常困難，但上帝卻加強了她的品格，給了她一個事工幫助他人，給她一個見證，使她更接近祂和人。
你必須學會處理生活中的好與壞。
事實上，有時學會與善相處更難。比如去年，突然間，這本書賣出了1500萬冊，讓我頓時變得非常富有。
它還帶來了很多我以前從未遇到過的惡名。我不認為上帝給你錢或名聲是為了你的自我或為了你過上安逸的生活。
所以我開始問上帝，他想讓我用這些錢、名聲和影響做什麼。他給了我兩段不同的經文，幫助我決定要做什麼，哥林多後書 9 和詩篇 72。
首先，儘管賺了很多錢，但我們不會一點點改變我們的生活方式。我們沒有進行大筆購買。
其次，大約在去年年中，我停止從教會領取薪水。
第三，我們設立基金會來資助一項我們稱之為“和平計劃”的倡議，以建立教會、裝備領袖、幫助窮人、照顧病人和教育下一代。
第四，我把我創辦教會24年來教會付給我的錢加起來，我把它全都歸還。能夠免費事奉上帝是一種解放。
我們需要問自己：我會為財產而活嗎？人氣？
我會被壓力驅使嗎？有罪？苦味？唯物主義？還是我會被上帝的旨意（為了我的生活）所驅使？
早上起床時，我坐在床邊說，神啊，如果今天我沒有完成任何其他事情，我想更多地認識你，更好地愛你。上帝讓我來到地球上並不是為了完成一個待辦事項清單。他對我是什麼比我做什麼更感興趣。
這就是為什麼我們被稱為人，而不是人的行為。
快樂的時刻，讚美上帝。
困難時刻，尋求上帝。
安靜的時刻，敬拜上帝。
痛苦的時刻，相信上帝。
每時每刻，感謝上帝。
如果你不傳遞它，什麼都不會發生。但是將它傳遞給朋友會很好......就像我所做的那樣。
上帝的祝福……
