Customer Reviews

THE POWER OF PURPOSE AWARDS

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I am a leader for our church's men's group. We used the "Power of Purpose Awards 2004" for discussion for 6 weeks, reading two stories a week and discussing them. We kept finding insights from both "ordinary" living and one physics giant. The selections offered myriad faces of purpose and how purpose or lack thereof shaped the lives of the people in the stories. I was fascinated by the attempts of members to try to find commonalities between stories, both the current week's stories and previous stories. The men were touched by stories that were often about ordinary people doing what, in retrospect, could be considered to be extraordinary things by virtue of their purpose.

There was one story that was fiction and one selection that was not a story but an argument for the Intelligent Design philosophy. We did not discuss either of these because we thought they were outside the method of the rest of the book.

At the end of the last session, we were hoping that John Templeton would have another contest to write stories for "The Power of Purpose Awards 2005". So far we have been disappointed.

This is a beautiful, inspiring collection of real life stories: with thanks to The Purpose-Driven Life (see also my review of that mega-seller), I started a journey of looking more carefully for my purpose in life, my mission: what do I live for, what do I want to achieve, where do I want to live my life and with whom do I want to be on this journey. I joined a reading group & chat rooms looking for other people's experiences and support. I shared my experiences and heard their stories and then, online, I found this book. The title intrigued me, even though I had not heard about the Power of Purpose Awards before. Apparently a highly competitive and very awarding (over half a million in awards) competition organized by the Templeton Foundation.

The judghes, too, are of the highest quality, for example:Marian Wright Edelman, Paul Davies, a physics professor and Rick Warren, the godfather of living a life with purpose. This book consists of 19 award winning essays by an entrepreneur, a physics professor, a Scottish Member of European Parliament, a book editor,a psychologist, a prisoner serving a sentence for life, and others who turn out to be very talented writers. The stories are inspiring experiences about their own lives, or other people's amazing and also down to earth journeys in life: where purpose, whether small or big, whether simple or complex has the power to change, the power to improve, the power to create, the power to inspire.

To me this was a very pleasant, sometimes emotional but often rewarding reading experience: a great companion guide to Rick Warren's book, and a meaningful gift to your children, your neighbors, your friends and to yourself.

One last note, in the back of the book I saw that proceeds of this book will go the Hunger Project, a charity battling with the biggest challenge our world is facing: the eradication of hunger. A very important initiative, and further testimony of the value of this book.