Lots of us think that God has set a course for us to follow and all we have to do is discern what that is and dutifully follow it. This view does an injustice to the creative freedom of human beings and makes God into a puppet master, according to Kirk Byron Jones, professor at Andover-Newton Theological School and former pastor of churches in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. In this incisive book on vocation and purpose, he challenges us to take a more adventuresome path: "Purpose is an open invitation from God to playfully (joyfully and creatively) imagine and live your boldest dreams."
The five steps on the path to unleashing your divine purpose are discussed in detail. They are:
• Believe that God is your divine partner, not your dominating parent.
• Believe that vocation is an open possibility, not a closed proposition.
• Accept that you are not just creature but creator as well.
• Dream your way to purpose.
• Joyfully play your dreams.
Jones presents fresh images of God, tips on living your purpose with deliberate intention and grand delight, seven benefits of an open and broader understanding of purpose, and three great creative powers we all possess. He concludes that vocational discernment does not have to be a sober affair but can involve play. He quotes Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley:
"To play is to listen to the imperative inner force that want to take form and be acted out without reason. It is the joyful, spontaneous expression of one's self. The inner force materializes in the feeling and perception without planning or effort. That is what play is."
