Saturday, March 19, 2005

The Purpose Driven Life

 
Last week, the book "The Purpose Driven Life"was mentioned any time Ashley Smith's name was on the news. The book definitely saved her life and turned a fugitive to the cops without much resistance:

The power of a religious appeal was displayed vividly recently in Atlanta, as the gutsy hostage of Brian Nichols, the accused courthouse killer, appeared to calm him down by reading a passage from a spiritual bestseller.

It was no ordinary book, but Southern Baptist minister Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?" The book of Christian spiritual exercises, employing verses from the Bible and meant to be read over 40 days, has sold more than 21 million copies since October 2002. Since the dramatic events of last Friday, sales have leaped again.

In interviews, the hostage, Ashley Smith, has said she read aloud from Warren's book to Nichols, who had taken her captive after allegedly killing a judge and three others.

Smith said Nichols had asked her to repeat a passage about service to others, and she said she suggested to him that his acts might have a purpose -- that by disseminating God's word in prison, "you can go to jail and save more people than you killed."

Read more...

I salute Ashley for her calmness while being in a very difficult situation. I'm certainly going to read this book.
 

1 comment:

Fayrouz said...

I bought the book last week. I have to read the book so I could debate with people who read it.

Thank you for the link. It helped too.