Who are you and what is your destiny? Do you know?
In Soul Print: Discovering Your Divine Destiny, author Mark Batterson has written a book to help us discover our unique identity. You are uniquely you because God has given you your identity with a distinct destiny attached. Using the life of David, Batterson explores how David, the boy who tended sheep and was overlooked by his brothers and father, was shaped into the one who could trust God against insurmountable odds, glory in God’s deliverance, act with character and not press his advantage against Saul, and as King, did not cling to symbols of power and prestige. He also explores how David’s sin and brokenness became an occasion for God’s grace to pour into his life in a fresh way. By examining David’s life, Batterson invites us to examine the patterns of our own life to discover where God has been at work, where he’s shaping us and where we are called.
Batterson’s insights are helpful in getting you to think about your life and who God made you. I certainly read this reflectively. While this book is pitched as a tool of self-discovery, ultimately it is a book about discovering where God is at work in the pages of your life history.
Of course the picture of David he sketches is a little sunny (he acknowledges David’s sins in the Bathsheba affair but the Biblical account of David reveals a character much more complex and conflicted than Batterson allows); however his conclusions are not overdrawn and he is careful in his exposition. Could this book have delved deeper and unpacked things more? Yes, but for what it is, I liked it and would recommend it. It may be helpful in getting people to be more self reflective in relationship to their faith and calling.
Thank you to Waterbrook Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this review.
thoughts, prayers & songs: 