Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else

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Kay Warren could be the prototype for anyone who wants to learn about hearts that beat for God. In her story I see five passion principles that can inspire us to dream big and think beyond our fears, in the process discovering our own unique, emotional heartbeats for God. They are: 1. Know what drives you. For Kay Warren, that is God and her desire to use everything he has given her to bring glory to his name every day of her life. 2. Know who you care about. For Warren, it clearly includes those impacted by HIV/AIDS. 3. Know the needs you will meet. For Warren, it includes spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. 4. Know the cause you will help conquer. For Warren, it is the desire to dramatically decrease the spread of HIV/ AIDS in the world through care, education, and medicine. 56

Tap into the secrets of what makes you who you are—passions, talents, experiences, temperament, and spiritual gifts—and you'll discover the path to a life of unimagined purpose, impact, and fulfillment.

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Da Vinci painted one Mona Lisa, Beethoven created one Fifth Symphony, and God made one version of you. You’re it! You’re the only you there is. And if we don’t get you, we don’t get you. You’re the only shot we have at you. You can do something no one else can do in a fashion no one else can do it. You are more than a coincidence of chromosomes and heredity, more than just an assemblage of somebody else’s lineage. You are uniquely made.... Filled with Scripture and real-life stories, S.H.A.P.E. presents a series of challenges that will guide you through the process of discovering your personal blend of The material is genius. Erik delivers on the promise of the book to help you discover the purpose for which God's created you. I feel a million times closer to that now that before I read the book. But...all great things in life must be shared. And I think when you're reorienting your life like this, you need tangible support from close friends and family.

In this eye-opening, empowering, and liberating book, Rees shows you how to uncover God’s most powerful and effective means of advancing his kingdom on earth: your own irreplaceable, richly detailed personal design. There is another Artist—a Grand Master—whose attention to detail and whose interest in his creation far outweigh that of any artist you will ever meet in a gallery. The Scripture says, Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed (Psalm 139:14–16, NLT). Instead of trying to reshape yourself to be like someone else, you should celebrate the shape God has given you.Trap #4: Deception The final trap Satan uses is deception. He manipulates you into believing you have certain gifts that God in fact has not given you — distracting you from putting your true gifts into effect and preventing you from accomplishing what God intended for your life. This deception especially plays itself out when it comes to leadership. John Maxwell has said, “If you think you are a leader, but no one is following you — you are just taking a walk.” ­People like that often expect results that will be blessed by God, yet God never meant for them to be a leader — at least not in the way they imagine. Be wary of Satan’s deception as you begin to share the gifts God has given you. Focus on God so he can reveal the spiritual gifts he has for you and show you how he wants you to use them for his glory. An excellent way to ensure that you don’t fall prey to one of these traps is to ask trustworthy ­people in your life for help and accountability.

This verse helps us understand that if we want to discover our mission or purpose in life, we first need to look at the masterpiece God has made us to be. While self-help books tell you to look within, I’m saying the key to living the life you were meant to live is to look to God and ask him to help you discover your uniqueness. Once you discover who you are, then you can start figuring out what God has planned for you, the specific way he designed you to make a difference in the world for him. During my freshman year of college, I took an art class—not because it was my major, but purely for the fun of it. (Well, to be honest, I took the class because of a cute girl who also had signed up for it!) One of our assignments was to study works on display at area art museums and galleries. So one day a classmate and I drove to an art show. Another translation of Ephesians 2:10 uses the word workmanship to describe our uniqueness. It’s from the Greek word poiema, which literally means work of art, and is the root of our English word poem. You are a work of God—and nothing but the highest and best comes from his hand. Like the artist who takes scrap metal and turns it into an amazing sculpture, God takes our lives and fashions them into a masterpiece. One of a Kind The Bible says, For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago (Ephesians 2:10, NLT).

Uncovering Your S.H.A.P.E. Chapter 1: Masterpiece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2: Spiritual Gifts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Chapter 3: Heart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Chapter 4: Abilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 5: Personality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Chapter 6: Experiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Secondly, having studied Spiritual gifts extensively, it is frustrating to see Erik Rees confuse qualities commanded of all believers (e.g.--hospitality) and ministry roles in the church (i.e.--apostleship, evangelism and pastoring) as Spiritual gifts. There are 15 charismata listed in three main passages about Spiritual gifts in the New Testament, and we don't need to add other things to the list. He also defines some of the gifts in ways that make it sound like these are run-of-the-mill abilities that even non-believers can manifest. Knowledge, for example, is something God tells you that you couldn't naturally know about a person or circumstance; not mere book-learning. Tap into the secrets of what makes you who you are--passions, talents, experiences, temperament, and spiritual gifts--and you'll discover the path to a life of unimagined purpose, impact, and fulfillment. But can you be anything you want to be? If you are uniquely made—now stop and think about this—if you’re uniquely made, can you really be anything you want to be? If you don’t have the sense that takes care of numbers, can you be an accountant? If you don’t have a love for the dirt, can you be a farmer? If you don’t have an appreciation and a devotion to kids, can you really be a teacher? Well, you can be an unhappy one, an unsatisfied one. You can be one of the 87 percent of the workforce that doesn’t like their work—one of the 80 percent of the people that says I don’t use my talents on a daily basis. You can be a statistic. ⁴ God wants you to truly understand and accept who he has made you to be. He longs for you to experience the release that comes with simply living as the person he created you to be.