你可以有自己的處世觀，這與你看這篇文章並不衝突，只希望我們都從這篇英文訪談稿中，思索著同樣關於生命的問題
前幾天有人問我，從海嘯的事件中，你有體會到什麼嗎？
這個問題我當下沒回答，因為實在不想只說些要好好珍惜人生，開始活在當下，這種八股又看不出實際行動力的回答，加上曾經參加演講比賽就是這類的題目，更讓我發現大家對於活在當下的意含都是由失去了什麼而產生，好像這樣的演講才會令人動容，才具有說服力似的（十個有五個講到眼角泛淚光，而那五個泛淚光的有三個得名！）
生命一直處在未知，這點任誰都明瞭
南亞海嘯的發生造成數十萬人喪命，這麼多人在同一時間離開人世，的確帶來了震撼，但真正受衝擊被影響的還是實際受到災難波及的人民。對我而言，世界上每天都有生老病死同步發生，海嘯造成眾多人成亡，癌症也是，憂鬱症也是，颱風也是，車禍更是，同樣是死亡為什麼要給予海嘯特別多的關注？
很多事情的發生，只不過再次証明生命的瞬息萬變與詭譎，生命一如往常，一直處於極大不確定的狀態，只是你既然知道了，不就應該想辦法與之抗衡嗎？省察自己的生活甚比悲憐別人來得更為重要。
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of the book,
The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren said: People ask me, "What is the
purpose of life?
And I respond, In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were
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 trillion 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 got 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 you to 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, 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. After all, that’s why
we’re called human beings, not human doings.
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