A Book Review
Ordering Your Private World
Gordon MacDonald
This book starts with an account of MacDonald’s childhood on through adulthood to his thirties where he received a great revelation. He sort of went through life sort of irresponsibly not really caring about the consequences of his actions. By age thirty he was a young pastor who was very busy in his ministry. He was very gifted and knew how to socialize and mingle with others and could be very popular and successful in the church world. He liked to please everyone and didn’t know how to say no. He had accumulated what he called “busyness”. He described this busyness as feeling like someone who was being swept along a raging river. Out of control. Fearful of capsizing.
On one particular Saturday morning he had no time to eat breakfast with his wife and young children nor had he spent any quality time with them either; for his calendar was filled with meeting the needs of others. As he started to rush out the door his wife asked him if he really wanted to live this way. This what you want the coming years to be like?
He stopped in his tracks and experienced what he describes as when he hit the wall. He began to sob uncontrollably for hours that day. He searched himself and asked God what it all meant and what he must do. He felt as though it was a breakdown. Mac Donald goes on to talk about how he had lived from the outside in but not from the inside out. His life was shallow and he had not spent any time looking inward at his soul and how he was spending his life as a representative of Christ.
He had not developed the type of order he should have in his life. This book goes on to describe the steps he took to change his life and to work toward gaining the order it lacked. He often used anecdotes to tell of his journey and offers useful advise who are seeking to live a less hurried life with more order. Also included is a study guide to aide one in ordering their own private word.
This book was given to me for my honest opinion by the publisher.
Comments
Post a Comment