Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by nickjonesreadsbooks
The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Andy Stanley
4.0
The cover and tag lines would seem to indicate a self-help book. Some reviewers have even labeled this as "self-help." I don't believe that this is a fair description. Stanley takes his readers back to the Scriptures--particularly the Wisdom literature portions--to have a frank discussion about a simple topic that many of us ignore to our detriment: Direction, not intention, determines our destination. The small decisions in our lives, are not just one time events--they add up to a path. And that path leads somewhere. Where are we spending our time and resources? What are we thinking about? We are on a path...is it leading to a place that we ultimately want to be?
Andy Stanley reminds us that the self-help line to "follow your heart" is a very dangerous thing to do because "the heart is deceitful above all else" (Jeremiah 17:9). Following your heart or your emotions will get you in to trouble. I have seen this to be true in my own life and the lives of friends, family, and acquaintances. The truth is that we have to ask God for guidance and rely on Him. In order to help us discern God's truth, versus subjective notions of "this must be God's will," Stanley offers many verses to pray and principles to observe. Wisdom is about relying on God and not our own understanding.
Even though many of the insights from this book seem simple, this book does a great job of walking the reader through the topic and connecting all the dots. C.S. Lewis quotes Dr. Johnson in Mere Christianity as saying that "People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." Then he states that, "The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see..." (78).
Pick it up and be reminded.
Andy Stanley reminds us that the self-help line to "follow your heart" is a very dangerous thing to do because "the heart is deceitful above all else" (Jeremiah 17:9). Following your heart or your emotions will get you in to trouble. I have seen this to be true in my own life and the lives of friends, family, and acquaintances. The truth is that we have to ask God for guidance and rely on Him. In order to help us discern God's truth, versus subjective notions of "this must be God's will," Stanley offers many verses to pray and principles to observe. Wisdom is about relying on God and not our own understanding.
Even though many of the insights from this book seem simple, this book does a great job of walking the reader through the topic and connecting all the dots. C.S. Lewis quotes Dr. Johnson in Mere Christianity as saying that "People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." Then he states that, "The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see..." (78).
Pick it up and be reminded.