Review: The Cause Within You

The Cause within You: Finding the One Great Thing You Were Created to Do in This World is a book where the title might not be as catchy as it could have been but the one thing that will catch in this book is inspiration.  Matthew Barnett was the youngest pastor of his denomination at age twenty, and he took a church that had about eight people in attendance to creating a huge center that reaches out to those in Los Angeles who are hurting and desperate -- the homeless, drug addicts, and anyone who feels hopeless.  People come to serve at his church and he stresses that serving will bring out the cause that is inside you, just serve and you will find that.  He says that true joy comes when we realize others are better off because of our investment in them.

This is a fascinating book.  He is certainly someone who hasn't thought traditionally.  A church that is open 24 hours a day?  There's always someone at the church serving.  Vans go out to feed the homeless.  He tells personal stories, too.  The story of taking the homeless children to Build-A-Bear was one I really enjoyed, but my favorite was one where he was telling of a woman who started a ministry in his church to pimps.  She even got invited to the Pimp of the Year award ceremony, and they all told her they would go to one function she wanted them to go to, and one Sunday morning there was a section of pimps in Matthew Barnett's congregation.

This book isn't a one-two-three to find your purpose in life.  Instead, it's a book of inspiration for you to discover that yourself -- or if you already know what your cause is, it's a book of encouragement to keep it up! 

I very much enjoyed this book, and will definitely be recommending it to others. 

FTC disclaimer:  I was sent a copy of this book free from the publisher as part of their summer reading program.  The thoughts and opinions of it are my own.