ORDERING YOUR PRIVATE WORLD
BY GORDON MACDONALD

Reviewed by Rachel Hunt

This book details the importance and significance of having an ordered private world - meaning that which is unseen in our lives becoming as stable and confident as that which is seen. The book also gives a number of guidelines on how to achieve an ordered private world, and how to decide what is truly important in our lives.

The majority of the book is divided into 5 parts: Motivation, use of Time, Wisdom and knowledge, Spiritual Strength, Restoration. The first section about Motivation looks at why we do what we do. It describes two contrasting people - the ‘driven’ person and the ‘called’ person, outlining disastrous results of living as a driven person. His teaching on Time focuses on how we use our time and how to use it more effectively - how to make use of all our time without overworking. The third section on Wisdom and Knowledge outlines the importance of gaining more knowledge through activities such as reading. It points out that many Christians are scared of this in case it raises questions in our minds. This, however, is something we must face in order to grow. The chapter on Spiritual Strength looks at what it’s like to be living dependant upon God and challenges our fears in this area. Finally, Restoration provides ideas about what true rest is, and calls us to examine whether we really rest or just have leisure time. It also points out the importance of taking rest regardless of whether our work is finished.

Overall, Gordon MacDonald presents a very convincing and challenging argument about the importance of having an ordered private world. The book had an impact upon me personally and challenged my attitude to some areas of my Christian life, although rather than sparking dramatic changes to my life, it actually began a thought-process.

I was particularly spoken to through the section on Motivation. I realized how so much of our time we can be motivated by the wrong things - acting because we want to look good, because we want people to like us. A sentence which really spoke to me was, "We are naively inclined to believe the most publicly active person is also the most privately spiritual." This attitude summed up my motivation a lot of the time. The book also challenges us greatly about our use of time and how much time we waste doing things like watching TV. This is something however that we might find very hard to change - habit is a hard thing to break. Of course, there is a balance to find. I struggle with the suggestion that many people are working too hard and will burnout, but yet we’re advised to consider getting up at 5am to pray!

It was reading about living as a ‘called’ person, however, which really made me realize I needed to change my way of thinking. A number of things caught my attention: the realization that everything we have has been given to us by God and therefore we should look after it; the idea that living as a ‘called’ person gives you a strong sense of identity; and the idea that the desert is actually a positive learning place. I realized that many of the things I long for in my Christian life are to be found by living as a ‘called’ person.

Overall I found this book very helpful and insightful in terms of showing us areas of life we may need to reconsider and change. However the easy part is always reading it - now we need to put it into action!