David Jeremiah - Life Wide Open: Unleashing the Power of a Passionate Life

Life Wide Open

Unleashing the Power of a Passionate Life

David Jeremiah

Author of the Bestseller My Hearts Desire

Copyright 2003 by David Jeremiah.

Published by Integrity Publishers, a division of Integrity Media, Inc., 5250 Virginia Way, Suite 110, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Helping people worldwide experience the manifest presence of GOD.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agents, Orange, California.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The New King James Version, copyright 1970, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission.

Other Scripture quotations are taken from the following sources:

The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

The Message ( MSG ), copyright 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

The New English Bible, copyright 1961, 1970 by the Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970. Reprinted by permission.

Cover Design: Bill Chiaravalle www.officeofbc.com

Interior: Inside Out Design & Typesetting

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jeremiah, David.

Life wide open : unleashing the power of a passionate life / David Jeremiah.

p. cm.

ISBN 159145-0659 (hardcover)

ISBN 159145-1205 (international paperback)

1. Christian life. I. Title.

BV4501.3.J465 2003

248.4dc22 2003017228

To my wife, Donna

For forty years we have sharedLIFE WIDE OPEN

Contents

Joey Paul and Byron Williamson of Integrity Publishers believed in this book from the first moment we discussed it. Joey, your notes, e-mails, and creative ideas kept me going!

Sealy Yates, of Yates and Yates, is my literary agent and most of all, my friend. We have worked together for over ten years on more than ten books. Sealy, I cant imagine writing without your counsel and encouragement.

Rob Suggs understands my heart. As my editor, he organizes my words and makes them come alive. Thank you, Rob, for your passionate work on Life Wide Open!

This is the third project Jennifer Stair has coordinated for Integrity Publishers. It is such a delight to work with you, Jennifer.

Paul Joiner, Rob Morgan, William Kruidenier, and Ed Stewart read this manuscript and offered valuable suggestions and assistance. Thank you, men, for helping me pull all of this material together. I am grateful for your contribution to Life Wide Open!

Helen Barnhart managed this project from my office. When I was on the road, she e-mailed and faxed me material so that I could stay on schedule. Helen, your humble work behind the scenes enabled me to do what I do. Thank you!

Carrie Mayer schedules my days and manages my office. Carrie, no one would believe all that you do in one day. I am continually blessed by your efficiency and your effectiveness.

Barbara Boucher works tirelessly as my personal secretary. Hundreds of demands that are part of a large, growing church never reach my desk because she handles them with wisdom and class. Barbara, I am honored to be represented by you at Shadow Mountain Community Church.

My greatest asset is my wife. From the very beginning, she has been a quiet, behind-the-scenes partner in all that God has given me to do. Donna, the inspiration of your faithful support becomes more important to me with each passing year.

I want to acknowledge two men who administrate the ministries that I have been leading for the past twenty years. Dr. Tom Thompson is the executive pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church. Thanks, Tom, for managing the details so that I can concentrate on the main thing God has called me to do.

David Michael Jeremiah is my oldest son and the director of operations at the international ministry of Turning Point. During the time I was working on this project, David was managing the construction of a new headquarters building along with his many other responsibilities. David, I am so grateful for your love for Jesus Christ and your commitment to serve Him at Turning Point.

Most of all, I want to thank God for calling me into ministry. The story of His leading in my life is at the center of this book. As I review His gracious dealings with me, I am filled with wonder and awe. I continue to learn that only the life that is lived for Him is life wide open.

David Jeremiah

San Diego, California

July 2003

Everywhere you go, you meet themthe ones who sit on the back row of life, whisper, and roll their eyes. These are people who arent really headed anywhere, and theyre eager to criticize those who are.

Today, we call them cynics. In Jesuss day, they were called Pharisees.

I dont know what they were called in the early days of this country, but I know that even then they were around. There is a story of Benjamin Franklin speaking to a crowd on the wonderful guarantees of liberty provided by the United States Constitution. Midway through his talk, one of these cynics called out, But what about this pursuit of happiness? Wheres our guarantee of happiness?

Franklin smiled and replied, My friend, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself.

By now I believe youve discovered Franklins observation to be true. Happiness is no entitlement. Theres no government funding for it. You cant buy it at the health-food shop or the ritziest store in the mall. Contrary to popular opinion, wealth isnt even a distant relative of happiness.

Yet there seem to be a lot of people in this world who are puzzled about where exactly the bluebird of happiness makes her nest, because all around us are passionless lives, lives idling in neutral, and lives out of focus. Deep down in our soul, we feel that we should be able to live life wide open. From a distance we have caught sight of this exotic quality called passion, exhibited by certain characters from books or in the movies and, every so often, someone we meet in the real world. These are people who grab for the gusto, as the old television commercial used to say.

What is their secret? How does one go about grabbing for gusto? A small handful among us have discovered what the rest of us would pay dearly to know: How can we bring real, living excitement into this life? Not some cheap, store-bought, amusement park-simulated excitementwe mean the genuine article. What is there that could possibly make us eager to leap out of bed in the morning, filled with laser-intense purpose, exhilarated about the prospect of another twenty-four hours on earth?

Wed really like to know, because many of us are not living a life wide opennot by a long stretch. Were closed shut. We are passion-impaired, though we have surpluses of longing, yearning, hopelessness, loneliness, and purposelessness. We can remember the times when our blood was really pumping, when our heart was skipping beats, and when it seemed there was some purpose we were reaching toward with everything in us.

This book is a map to the life of passion and purpose, the life wide open, based on the best wisdom weve been able to glean from the Word of God these two thousand years. About that long-ago time lived a man known as Jesus of Nazareth, and we believe He held the key to ultimate power for livingmore precisely, we believe He was the key.