In The Principle of the Path, Andy Stanley wants the reader to understand why, in spite of what may be the best intentions, some don't end up where they hoped to be. He writes:
Direction--not intentions, hopes, dreams, prayers, beliefs, intellect, or education--determines destination. I know it's tempting to believe that our good intentions, aspirations, and dreams somehow have the ability to do an end run around the decisions that we make on a daily basis. But at the end of the day, the principle of the path determines the outcome. Simply put, you and I will win or lose in life by the paths we choose.
Direction determines our ultimate destination with our finances, our marriages, our careers, and our dreams. Stanley wrote The Principle of the Path as a road map to proper direction and discipline.
Many need the bracing wake-up call the book provides. I'm concerned, however, that many others will wilt under the relentless insistence that any and every destination is soley the result of the direction one has chosen to take. While much of the book of Proverbs warns the unwise of poorly-chosen paths, the Bible's wisdom literature also acknowledges divinely-directed circumstances beyond our control (e.g., Eccl. 9:11). I'm not sure the closing chapter, meant to comfort those who choose the right direction and yet do not reach their destination after all, is enough to counter the message throughout the rest of the book that failure to reach one's destination is thoroughly the result of a poorly-chosen direction.
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