The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life [Hardcover]

Os Guinness (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 1998

Os Guinness has penned a classic reflective work on life's purpose. Far bigger than our jobs and accomplishments and higher than our wildest ideas of self-fulfillment, our calling does more than give purpose and meaning to our lives-it completes God's plan for us.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1ST edition (May 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849912911
• ISBN-13: 978-0849912917
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

OS GUINNESS (DPhil, Oxford University) was born in China, raised and educated in England, and moved to the United States in 1984. He directs the Trinity Forum and is a former fellow at the East-West Institute in New York. His books include The American Hour, No God But God, and The Dust of Death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book That Challenges You to Think and Evaluate!, March 2, 2003

By 

Michael Taylor "Michael Taylor" (Indian Trail NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Hardcover)

Some earlier reviews commented on the difficulty of the book's writing style. Personally, I found it to be mentally and spiritually challenging! I am concerned about how our hurried society has dictated not only how we live, but also how we think. God has given us a brain - we must use it!

Admittingly, the book is profound. However, when read devotionally ( a chapter a day like "My Utmost For His Highest"), the reader is encouraged to think about what was read and how to apply the chapter to everyday living.

I personally thought some of Guinness' better points were:

1. Be devoted to Jesus instead of your service to Jesus.
2. Be inner-directed by God than other-directed by the
opinions of others (what God thinks matters most!).
3. God calls us to a life of faith.
4. Deliberate spend time in solitude with God.
5. Glorify God in the ordinary things of life.
6. A sense of calling keeps us focused when modern-day
life threatens to tear us apart.
7. Taking God's call seriously means we will pay the
price of being abused and treated as fools by those
who do not understand.

All in all, an excellent read! To use the old saying: "be ready to put on your thinking cap" when reading this one!

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captures the wholistic philosophy of God's call on the Xtian, January 21, 1999

By 

Michael Batley ([e-mail]) (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Call (Audio Cassette)

If you are looking for a "how-to" book you might be disappointed. Instead, Os Guiness gives us something much deeper, and so much better. He gives us the "Why" of The Call.

Approaching his subject with the important understanding that all Christians are called by God to serve Him and the Body in some special way Guiness uses stories like a great mural to show how others in Christianity and outside have answered a "call" in their life and found meaning, purpose, joy and left their indelible mark on history.

What I appreciated so much about the wonderfully written book is that Guiness uses story not only to put call in history but to call us to greater things. The book is not "dumbed down" to the modern reader like so many other Christian books, but instead he woos the reader to do the work of thoughtful reading and consideration.

The book is laid out so that each chapter is a complete thought and should be digested one a day with questions at the end of each chapter to ponder.

This book will be especially helpful for people at crossroads of life, career or at important life stages. Thank you Os!!!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every chapter challenged and inspired., September 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Hardcover)

Os Guinness does an excellent job weaving examples of individual lives and truth in such a way that the reader not only understands God's call to Himself, but longs to sense and live it. My own copy is dog-eared, underlined and annotated with Scriptural references which obviously served as the springboard for his principles. He spurred me to read more Christian biographies, examine my commitments in light of God's call and look at the world from God's perspective. I was truly saddened to reach the end.