Being a Driven Person Verses Being a Called Person

Life is stressful and fast paced. Gordon MacDonald has been there. As a young pastor, he found himself running to meetings, counseling parishioners, writing sermons, trying to start big projects for the church, and he discovered that he was losing his family. His solid base was disintegrating.

Driven people are often running on empty. They are exhausted, but feel it’s what has to be because there are so many things to do, and they are the ones who have to do them. This leads to a terrible problem of being unable to let go. Too many people reach retirement not knowing what to do with time and often it leads to their death.

Called people are secure in themselves. MacDonald used John the Baptist as an example of a called person. He was secure in the knowledge that his job was to prepare the way for the Messiah. When Christ appeared he didn’t try to hang on to his followers. He relinquished his role to Jesus. If we’re secure in ourselves, we don’t have to constantly prove things, or work too hard to prove to the external world that we exist.

I highly recommend this book. If you see yourself in the example of a driven person, perhaps it’s time to take stock and find ways to get back your internal solidity. The first half of the book discusses the concept of the driven person versus the called person. The remaining chapters provide hints and ideas for how to begin to order your life to become less driven. In our fast paced society, I think all Christians should read this book.

I received this book from Handlebar Publishing for this review.