Principle of the Path

Recently I borrowed Principle of the Path, a book by Andy Stanley, from Abby. You might recall that she once blogged about this book, available here. When I first had a chance to look at the book, and read a few things from the jacket, I must admit that I was a bit hesitant. Although I already returned the book, and thus I am not able to directly quote it, the book was saying things along the lines that reading the book was a sure-fire way to help my children become obedient and for my marriage to be better. Oh. Okay. Despite it's claims to the other, it was looking like it would be a self help book. Despite this, I dug in anyway.

The Principle of the Path is defined as "Direction - not intention - determines your destination". What this means is that no matter how much you intend for your life to end up one way, say to live the American dream, if you don't make good decisions your intentions will do nothing for you. Now this might seem as common sense, and in fact Andy wondered if it was so obvious that there was no need for him to write about it. But the thing about common sense is that it actually isn't that common.

And it is this concept that Andy explores throughout the book. The thought that we are all on a path, a path that has a destination. But these paths, though they are numerous, have been trodden on by many others before us. And no matter how different these people are, they all reach the same destination. The point of the book is that we need to learn from others who have already traveled down their path. Andy refers to this as the "road maps" of others. Those who are wiser than us and have more experience. Now this, yet again, seems to be common sense. After all, who doesn't attempt to learn from others? Well, we do. Or, as Andy pointed out, we do the same thing as Rehoboam, who disregarded the wise advice of his royal advisers and instead followed the advice of young men who were no farther on the path than he. Now, this is a point that I slightly dispute. I believe that there is much we can learn from our peers. But still, it is the nature of teenagers to think such. After all, I think pretty much everyone can attest to the foolish arrogance that we are prone to posses.

So was I eternally changed as a result of this book? Not especially. Would I recommend this book? Of course. We all need to learn how to be intentional in what we do. To recognize that we are on a path, whether we like it or not. And that path has a definitive destination, whether we like it or not. Just because I want to be a hermit doesn't mean I automatically become one. I need to take the necessary steps, such as shun society and find a nice cave somewhere. Preferably with cake.

I did promise cake, didn't I?