The Fingerprints of God...

Each of us has a unique identity. There has never been and never will be anyone like you. Much like fingerprints, the 'soulprint' of God on each person's life is special and specific. Sadly, most of us spend far too much of our lives chasing everything but what God wants for us, instead of being ourselves and discovering our divine destiny.

In Soulprint, Mark Batterson unpacks this concept. He calls on each of us to live the life nobody else can, discovering our unique identity, the life God has given us. Sadly, most of us live as strangers to ourselves. We lose ourselves and our identities behind the lies we believe from others, and the mistakes we feel we cannot recover from. Through the story of David, using an opening and a closing and five 'scenes,' Batterson looks at discovering the person God created us to be and the identity and destiny God has for our lives.

Along the way, he discusses how perceived disadvantages can turn into blessings and create character and shape our destiny. God can use the unlikeliest of people with the unlikeliest skill sets and life circumstances to produce the unique storyline for our lives. We need to develop a holy confidence in God and His plan and all He has given us to become who He desires us to be and to fulfill our divine destiny. We also need to learn to see the past through the lens of God's eyes and see the purposes God has for us in our past experiences. Selfless integrity is another important part of finding and fulfilling our divine destiny, as is dying to ourselves and our alternate identities. We need to risk embarrassment and loss of dignity by embracing even the beautiful awkward moments of life. We also need to embrace our brokenness as a potential blessing in disguise and learn from those moments as we lean on God's holiness more deeply. We are defined by God's grace, not by our sin and our mistakes.

Ultimately, we must spend time with God. If we want to know our divine destiny, we will never find it outside of our relationship with our Designer. Otherwise, we will have a case of mistaken identity. Batterson's premise, the core of the book, comes back to this idea in the opening chapter, "I want you to experience the joy of discovering who you are and the freedom of discovering who you are not. It won't be easy. And there are no shortcuts. But if you are breathing, God hasn't given up on you yet. So don't give up on yourself. Let this promise soak into your spirit, because it will energize your reading: it's never too late to be who you might have been."

{FTC disclaimer: "I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"}