The On-Purpose Person free book giveaway

Those of you who don’t already own a copy of Kevin W. McCarthy’s book The On-Purpose Person: Mark your calendars, because you’ll be able to get a copy for free April 24-28.

The free edition is a Kindle e-book, and if you don’t own a Kindle device, you can download a free Kindle app for your phone, tablet, Mac or PC.

Free + Free = Good Deal

The On-Purpose Person is a business parable that shows how to take what you already know about yourself and use it to discover your purpose and develop your priorities. Kevin also has print copies available.

Kevin W. McCarthy

In conjunction with the giveaway, Kevin will host a free live webcast:

Power of Your Two-Word Purpose Statement
May 1, 2012, 3-3:30 p.m., EDT

In this interactive online event, Kevin will help you discover your purpose and improve your life. A 20-minute talk will be followed by a Q&A session. Advanced registration is required, so sign up now.

Free + Free + Free = Great Deal!

Your “prison” might be God’s “safe house”

A few weeks ago at Fellowship Friday, Mark Goldstein shared an observation that really helped me reconcile myself to my past.

Mark told us he found a spider in his shower, and rather than let the spider get drowned when the shower was turned on, he captured it in a box to release it outside. But the spider, not knowing about the imminent deluge, ran from the box, resisting confinement.

Photo by Victor Iglesias

How often do we resist being put in a box? Mark’s point is that while the spider saw a danger, it actually got protection from a greater threat it had no way of perceiving. In the same way, God may put us in circumstances we resist or rebel against, but in fact he’s trying to preserve us from some greater difficulty beyond our understanding.

The last few years of my journalism career were like that. I felt stifled. My best skills were not being used every day. I felt, as I said to some prayer partners at the time, imprisoned.

God had me in a box. As I look back now, I realize that had I gone through the depth of the recession as a freelancer, I might not have made it. Instead of a prison, the newsroom was a safe house where I was able to earn a living, build relationships, and hone my editing skills.

Consider whether times you felt imprisoned were really times that God was protecting you from some greater disaster. The apostle Paul tells us that in all things God works for good together with those who love him. But God’s idea of what’s good and ours don’t always match. He’s not working to please us. He’s working to save us.