The Smarmy Carny

The Purpose-Driven Life

My church has just kicked off "40 Days of Purpose," a campaign that utilizes Rick Warren's book The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? These 40 days are intentionally lined up within the Lenten season so that we will wrap up on Easter weekend.

For our kick-off meeting, we watched a 90-minute DVD presentation from Rick Warren that was quite enjoyable to watch and listen to. I am not normally much of a note-taker, but he had me scribbling notes in the margin throughout the presentation. Once I have my notes in front of me, I might include some of those thoughts in this post.

If you're not familiar with The Purpose-Driven Life, read this snippet from purposedrivenlife.com:

The Purpose-Driven Life is a manifesto for Christian living in the 21st century…a lifestyle based on eternal purposes, not cultural values. Using biblical stories and letting the Bible speak for itself, Warren clearly explains God's five purposes for each of us:

1. We were planned for God's pleasure, so your first purpose is to offer real worship.
2. We were formed for God's family, so your second purpose is to enjoy real fellowship.
3. We were created to become like Christ, so your third purpose is to learn real discipleship.
4. We were shaped for serving God, so your fourth purpose is to practice real ministry.
5. We were made for a mission, so your fifth purpose is to live out real evangelism.

That said, there were a couple things in Warren's presentation that made me raise an eyebrow, though. The one item that still has my mind whirring was during his section on evangelism. He said something to the effect of "If we don't tell others the Good News, someone who should be in heaven might not be there." I realize that he was trying to convey the urgency of evangelism, but something just didn't sit right with me on that. I'm not a Calvinist to any appreciable degree, but this seems to have brought out some Calvinistic sentiments in me. If someone should be in heaven, I feel like they would end up there via other means. Maybe I'm just using Calvinistic views to avoid the urgency of evangelism, but my hesitancy seems deeper than mere avoidance. Then again, perhaps it is simply semantics — particularly with the word "should." In philosophical circles, "should" carries with it a certain weightiness. I'm not saying I'm right about this, and I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm just saying it still makes me a bit uneasy.

I have already read portions of The Purpose-Driven Life, and it holds so much amazing information in it. I'm really looking forward to delving into it, and hopefully I can actually apply it to my life instead of merely reading it.

Phil saw his shadow!

That's right, woodchuck chuckers, it's GROUNDHOG DAY!!!

Including this year, Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow 95 times and has not seen his shadow 14 times. That's not very many early springs! Check up on the festivities.

We also have Dunkirk Dave in Western New York that predicts the weather each year. This will be his fifth year predicting. Read more about Dunkirk Dave.

There might be a groundhog in your area, too! Check this list out to see the rest of the prognosticating groundhogs (and other animals, too)!

Update: Phil saw his shadow! What's that mean? Six more weeks of winter. Dunkirk Dave saw his shadow, too! Since he speaks for Buffalo, I guess his prediction would mean the usual six more months of winter.

Full-Court Shot

0.6 seconds, 87 feet, 3 points. That basically sums up the end of the Guilford vs. Randolph-Macon game one week ago tonight.

Even if you're not interested in basketball at all, you really must watch the video footage of this game-winning full-court shot.

Details: With the game tied and nearing the final buzzer, Randolph-Macon's Adam Krovic was fouled with 0.6 seconds left in the game. Krovic hit the first shot to give his team a one point lead. Standard coaching strategy dictates that in this situation, you intentionally miss your second shot so that the other team cannot throw a long pass and make a quick basket to tie or win the game. This way, even if the team gets the rebound, they only have 0.6 seconds to somehow get the ball down the court and into the basket, thus ensuring you the win. Unfortunately, this strategy does not account for Guilford College's Jordan Snipes. Snipes grabbed the rebound and immediately chucked the ball all the way down the court. I have seen NBA pros throw up airballs from half court. Snipes missed the rim, but got all net. His team won by two.

As I said before, you really must watch the video, and if you're interested, you can read the article about the game.

Update: For your convenience, here is another link to the video and a link directly to a video file, though this one is edited slightly.