Am I Wasting My Life?
Walking home with a friend from uni on Wednesday, she lamented, “I’m wasting my life!” She was referring to her hard drinking Wednesday nights and the regretful, consequential hangover of Thursday that has become routine. In her statement, however, was something so profound. Yes, it is true. She is wasting her life. But the fact is, most of us are.
This morning I finished reading John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life. My life is in complete overhaul. This book has changed my life. John Piper gives a perspective on life that is completely radical and immensely challenging. And it’s God’s perspective; taken straight from the bible.
Piper writes: “I’ll tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader’s Digest: ‘A couple took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on the 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells…’ Picture them before Christ on the great day of judgement: ‘Look Lord. See my shells’. That is a tragedy.”
John Piper deeply warns about a life that is ultimately self-serving. A life that has Jesus pushed to the side, where security and comfort direct our decisions, and life itself is given higher priority than the Lord. A life that plays it safe is not a life that honours God. In fact, anything other than a life that is full of risks taken for God will end in the cry “I’ve wasted it!”
Piper explains that our joy is complete when we are wholly satisfied in God. It is so easy to think that we need to choose between serving God and being happy. But these two go hand in hand. It is when we delight in God, that we are truly happy. We were made to live for God. Until we choose to delight in Him, our joy will not be real.
This book is practical, as Piper shows us how to live for God in our relationships, in our day-to-day life, with our money and in our decisions. He wants everything in our life to have purpose, bringing glory to God. He wants us to spread a passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all people’s through Jesus Christ.
So we need to ask ourselves, “Am I fulfilling this mission best in the role I now have? When the Lord calls me to give an account of my ministry in the last day, will I be able to say, ‘Lord, I was in [Wollongong] because I believed I could be most instrumental there in accomplishing your purpose to make a name for yourself among the nations, and to gather your peoples from all the earth?”
This book is a must read. There is no other way to say it. (Apart from, ‘you must read this book’). So, buy it, or borrow it, take a deep breath and READ it. And let God change you. Let Him show you how he wants you to live. Let Him show you how not to waste your life.
We are all going to meet God. So please, please, let’s live like we are.
by Christina McMillan
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