Travis Collins believes God’s people can hear His call and find their purpose in life when they listen intently above the conflicting messages of the world.
That realization is one of the themes in Collins’ book "Directionally Challenged: How to Find & Follow God’s Course for Your Life."
The book is the second published for Woman’s Missionary Union’s (WMU) current emphasis, Live the Call.
For believers, finding their purpose in life isn’t merely about what brings fulfillment but using their talents for God’s purposes, Collins said.
"The ultimate goal is finding what is God doing and how does my course fit with what He’s doing," said Collins, senior pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., and a former missionary to Venezuela and Nigeria. "I think that’s how He wants us to look at a call."
Collins, an Anniston native and a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, has written a vibrant book with stories to which readers can relate, citing Alabama politicians like Howell Heflin and Baptist leaders like Samford professor Calvin Miller and WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee.
"I think deep stuff doesn’t have to be dry stuff," Collins said. "Something can be sound, even scholarly, yet fun.
"That’s the way I try to preach; that’s the way I try to live."
But even among the personal, and often humorous, analogies, he believes readers will find substance in what he’s written.
"Directionally Challenged" is a companion to WMU’s emphasis book for 2006–2007, "Live the Call" by Lee.
Lee said Collins’ book was chosen as the WMU’s next emphasis book because of his experiences and insight as a missionary and pastor.
"Not only does he have an interesting personal testimony of following God’s call in his own life, he has also successfully helped many others to hear and follow God’s call," she said.
"Through a pastor’s perspective, ‘Directionally Challenged’ explores the reality of today’s culture, how many needlessly wander without a sense of direction and how God’s call provides meaning and purpose," Lee added.
In "Directionally Challenged," Collins warns that the Bible does not talk a lot about God’s will for someone’s life but does reveal His purposes for the world.
Collins recalled his frustration after not finding clarity in Scripture about God’s will for believers’ lives when he wanted to preach a sermon on the topic at his first pastorate in Upton, Ky.
"I thought, ‘Maybe God intends for us to struggle with this a little bit,’" Collins said. "Maybe the struggle is part of it."
Collins said he believes everyone is eager to determine his or her purpose in life.
"All of us want direction," Collins said. "All of us want life to make a difference. All of us want to feel like when we’re gone … that our living will not have been for nothing.
"Even the person whose faith may be weak and whose commitment may be pretty superficial, I still think he or she wants to know, ‘Why am I here?’"
The book is available from New Hope Publishers in Birmingham at www.wmustore.com.
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