It was easy to make the
selection of Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald to take on as a
review book. The title itself got my attention as something that would easily
benefit me. While it did provide information on organizing and time management,
it all started with an explanation of why your private world is so important.
Your private world is the
foundation that everything is built on. We spend lots of time focusing on the
outside world, the one that everyone sees and in some ways, judges us on. But
if you don’t have your private world in order, the rest isn’t going to be worth
much in the long run. MacDonald’s explanations are solid and practical. They
make it easy to understand just why getting the private world in order is so
critical no not just what you do but who you are.
I love the word pictures
that MacDonald creates. My favorite being the idea of an unordered private
world being like a sinkhole. You can build all kinds of things on top of it, but
there’s a chance that one day, that emptiness is going to catch up with you and
put everything that you’ve worked so hard on at risk. That’s a pretty vivid
explanation for the importance of looking internally.
Some of the book is focused
on a certain type of person, the driven individual that forfeits lots of other
things in order to obtain what they want. I have to admit, I skimmed a lot of
this as I didn’t feel like it pertained to me. While everyone has some of those
characteristics, I didn’t feel like that was me. Otherwise, much of what he
said was applicable.
This book is ideal for just
about anyone. Who wouldn’t benefit from the reminder that you’re private world
and private time needs to have a focus. Putting prayer, devotions, and even
silence into practice can have amazing effects on how things go both inside and
outside of a person. The study guide helps narrow down the focus for those that
may not have the time to digest the book in one or two settings.
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