Book review - Restless Journey: Every Man's Struggle for Significance
On June 26, 2007, I was given Restless Journey by a friend of the author. We were talking about the Halftime journey, which is the journey from success to significance. I think the word significance caught his attention, because the sub-title of this book is Every Man's Struggle for Significance.
In short, this is a book for men to help them discover the unique thing God has called them to do and in discovering this, they will come to know God and be known by God. Life is a journey during which we begin to live in eternity and influence certain others around us to do the same. Those certain others are people that God puts in our path that know us and are known by us. Those that are drifting in life have chosen to abandon the journey or have been detoured by things that are not part of their unique calling.
The main point of this book is that the need to be known is one of the driving forces for both God and man. God is a communicating Spirit. And by creating us to be communicating spirits, God has created a being in the universe who needs to be known. But if that is true, then God also needs to be known. (pg. 44)
Page 214 sums up the book this way:
1. The reason you are restless and you struggle to live a life of significance in that the quest in already in you. It will continue to churn until it is engaged, and it will reject all other paths.
2. You cannot complete the quest by yourself. You need certain other people and you must know how to recognize them.
3. The quest to be known is in every other person around you. They may not know it, but you do. This knowledge will allow you to help them.
4. Your task in this life is to till the soil in other people's lives--and most often, in certain other people. Money, fame, or power will never give you the kind of satisfaction and significance you will find in doing your thing.
5. The purpose of this life is to allow you to mature into a fully functioning child of God--a son.
In short, this is a book for men to help them discover the unique thing God has called them to do and in discovering this, they will come to know God and be known by God. Life is a journey during which we begin to live in eternity and influence certain others around us to do the same. Those certain others are people that God puts in our path that know us and are known by us. Those that are drifting in life have chosen to abandon the journey or have been detoured by things that are not part of their unique calling.
The main point of this book is that the need to be known is one of the driving forces for both God and man. God is a communicating Spirit. And by creating us to be communicating spirits, God has created a being in the universe who needs to be known. But if that is true, then God also needs to be known. (pg. 44)
Page 214 sums up the book this way:
1. The reason you are restless and you struggle to live a life of significance in that the quest in already in you. It will continue to churn until it is engaged, and it will reject all other paths.
2. You cannot complete the quest by yourself. You need certain other people and you must know how to recognize them.
3. The quest to be known is in every other person around you. They may not know it, but you do. This knowledge will allow you to help them.
4. Your task in this life is to till the soil in other people's lives--and most often, in certain other people. Money, fame, or power will never give you the kind of satisfaction and significance you will find in doing your thing.
5. The purpose of this life is to allow you to mature into a fully functioning child of God--a son.
Bottom Line: Without a vision the people perish. If you don't have a vision, then you'll drift through life without experience the abundant life that Jesus talked about.
COMPARISON TO Success to Significance
Restless Journey is designed to inspire you to get in the game of life with any vision. Halftime's goal is to inspire the reader to move from success to significance. In the companion book, Success to Significance, the author Lloyd Reeb takes a practical approach to helping you discover your thing--your unique calling--in the second half of your life. After going through the steps in Lloyd's book, I was able to put together a personal mission statement (To recruit and equip eternal investors) that ultimately helped me discover the thing I'm now doing as part of my unique calling. As a reader of Restless Journey, I would be inspired to find my unique purpose in life, but unlike Lloyd Reeb, Marcus Ryan gave no practical steps on how to actually find your unique calling. Success to Signifiance is about managing specific transitions in your life, especially the mid-life journey of men. Restless Journey is not about specific transitions or specific steps, but about inspiring you to see that intimacy with God and certain people can lead to the most fulfilling life possible.
