First, I must confess that this it the first book of Andy’s that I’ve ever read.  Can you believe that?  It certainly will not be my last!  I love his writing style.  It is very much like his speaking.  He writes in a very easy to follow, conversational style.  Everything just seems to flow from one thought to the next making it very hard to put the book down!

The basic premise of the book is so simple that it is not recognized and followed by most of us.  The path that we choose determines where we end up.  No matter how much we try to ignore this principle, it is still at work.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Recognizing the distinction between a solution and a path is the first step in understanding the principle of the path.
• Direction determines destination. …  You don’t have problems to fix; you have directions that need to change. It is time to begin living in the right direction.
• For just as this powerful principle explains how you’ve arrived where you are, it offers hope for the future as well. And, like every principle, once you understand how it works, you can leverage it to your advantage.
• The road I’m on always determines where I end up.  …  It really doesn’t matter where I intended to be; the path I take determines my ultimate destination.
• So a prudent person is a wise person. The implication here is that a prudent man or woman understands that all of life is connected. He is aware of the cause-and-effect relationship between what he chooses today and what he experiences tomorrow, what he chooses during one season of life and his experience in a future season—for better or worse. Consequently, prudent people look as far down the road as possible when making decisions.
• Simple is used interchangeably with the term naive. In contrast to the prudent, the simple or naive person lives as though life is disconnected; as if there is no connection between today’s choices and tomorrow’s experiences.
• For being oblivious to the obvious. The simple suffer for refusing to act on what they see. They suffer because they live as if there is no connection between the choices of today and the experiences of tomorrow. They overlook the fact that every path has a destination.
• Forgiveness and consequences are two different things.
• Principles are what enable us to plan with some element of confidence.
• At the end of the day, direction, not intention, determines destination.
• Prudent people know that it’s what you do that makes the difference, not what you see. Seeing danger and doing nothing doesn’t accomplish anything. …  Acting prudently often appears to others as unnecessary caution.
• Lord, help us to see trouble coming long before it gets here. And give us the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it.
• As long as we are lying to ourselves, it is impossible to get to where we want to be. Here’s why. You will never get to where you want to be if you don’t know where you are to begin with. When we deceive ourselves, we blind ourselves to our current location.
• Because now you know something you didn’t know before. Namely, your heart should not be your guide. It can’t be trusted.
• Choosing the right path begins with submission, not information. Not even direction. Submission. Specifically, submission to the One who knows where each path leads, as well as where it doesn’t lead. Submission to the One who knows what’s best for you better than you know what’s best for you.
• Don’t trust your heart; trust God with your heart.
• The moral of the story is this: In order to make the best decisions now, we need much more than information, common sense, or conventional wisdom. We need God. We need to live with a posture of dependency. We need to acknowledge him in all our ways.
• Every path has a destination. Direction, not intention, determines destination. Divine direction begins with submission. Information is not enough. Insight is not enough.
• More often than not, the circumstances we face are saturated with powerful emotions. Those emotions easily turn into misguided passions. In the end, passion clouds the ability to accurately evaluate the circumstance in order to choose the right path.
• In refusing to kill Saul, he [David] modeled a powerful truth: one never accomplishes the will of God by breaking the law of God, violating the principles of God, or ignoring the wisdom of God. …  So I want to encourage you to apply these three questions to every option that comes your way: 1. Does this option violate God’s law? 2. Does this option violate a principle? 3. In light of the story I want to tell, what is the wise thing to do?
• Successful people are often credited with being smart. And many are. But the successful people I know don’t attribute their success to their IQs. They attribute it to the collective wisdom and insight they garnered from others. Successful people aren’t successful because they knew everything they needed to know. They are successful because they were willing to apply the lessons they learned from others.  One of the primary avenues through which God directs us is the counsel of others. …  Wise people listen and prosper. Fools don’t, and don’t.
• I learned a long time ago that there is something more important than being right, and that is making the right decision. People who always have to be right will always be limited in their decision-making ability.
• It is next to impossible to hear the voice of wisdom if we are not really listening for it to begin with. The best counsel in the world is wasted counsel if our minds are already made up.
• Your knowledge, insight, and experience may put you miles ahead of the average person. But even then, you won’t reach your full potential apart from tapping into the knowledge, insight, and experience of those who are a step ahead of you.
• What captures our attention influences our direction. Attention, direction, destination. That’s the principle of the path in three words. …  So pay careful attention to what you are paying attention to. Pay attention to the things that are competing for your attention. Pause before devoting your attention to anything. And devote special attention to those things that deserve your attention.
• Scripture stands as a reminder that regardless of what we’ve experienced, we are not the first. Regardless of what we feel, someone else has navigated through that fog before us. And more important, someone has faced what we’ve faced, felt what we’ve felt, and his or her faith has survived.
• There comes a time in each of our lives when we are forced to turn our backs on something we hoped for, prayed for, dreamed about, and perhaps planned for. These are usually good things. But a day comes when we are faced with the reality that they’re not going to happen for us. We aren’t going to get there. That dream isn’t coming true.
• Knowing doesn’t make the difference. Doing does. The decisions you make will determine the direction and the destination of your life. Choose wisely.

Incredible book.  A definite must read.  I even had the opportunity to recommend it to our Southbrook staff during a recent staff meeting because it fit so well with something that Pastor Rob was sharing with us from the book of Numbers in his devotional.