Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper (Published by Crossway Books, 2003, 190 pp.)

 Life is not something that most people deliberately set out to waste.  Everyone wants to enjoy life (the “pursuit of happiness” is seen as an “inalienable right”) and nearly everyone dreams of doing great things and leaving a legacy that will be remembered. 

Actual goals vary; Christians recognize (in theory, at least) that their life’s purpose is to glorify God in whatever they do.   However, even Christians tend to see glorifying God and enjoying life as mutually exclusive.  Piper’s thesis is that many people will waste their lives simply because they do not realize that pursuing their true joy and glorifying God are one and the same.

When John Piper was a child, his father used a sermon illustration that made a great impression on him.  He told the story of a hardened sinner who finally experienced the joy of conversion in his old age, but who lamented bitterly as he realized  he had wasted his life.  This initiated Piper’s quest to make his life profitable and meaningful, which he describes in the first several chapters.  Growing up in the 50s and turbulent 60s, he found plenty of contradictory material for consideration, from popular music to mainstream evangelical thought; however, he was strongly influenced by Francis Schaeffer and the works of C.S. Lewis. 

Most significantly, God was pursuing him.  When his intended career as a medical doctor was derailed early by illness, Piper began to consider the call to preach.  As he lay in bed listening to an expositional sermon on the college radio station, he realized that “ultimate Reality had suddenly centered…on the Word of God.” (23) There remained yet the battle with “hermeneutical subjectivism,” one of the theological experiments of the 70s; but with the help of his seminary hermeneutics instructor and Jonathan Edwards’ writings, Piper concluded that the Bible does mean what it says.  In order to be well-lived rather than wasted, life must be lived by “a single, soul-satisfying passion for the supremacy of God in all things.”  (43)  The rest of the book answers the question of how ordinary things such as work, cars, diapers, and taxes really can have such a singleness of purpose:  magnifying the cross of Christ.

When we consider the cross of Christ as the means of God’s wrath being removed, our sins forgiven, righteousness imputed to us, and the beginning of our being conformed to the image of Christ, what else would we want to make much of?   Yet magnifying Christ will be costly.  Piper says that we naturally prefer to enjoy God’s gifts, wanting His love to make much of us, rather than to endure pain, suffering, risk, or even inconvenience to make much of Christ. 

Piper summarizes the goal of life as “gladly making others glad in God,” (99) another term for the ministry of reconciliation.  The next two chapters show what this looks like in daily living.  Think about how long it has been since someone asked you “a reason for the hope that is in you”; Piper suggests that if no one is asking, your life may indicate that your hope is in the same things theirs is.  He addresses the customary issues of money, clothing, and seemingly harmless time-wasters, but also comes out with a startling broadside against “simple lifestyles” (which, he says, “may be inwardly directed and may benefit no one else” [113]) and an avoidance mindset that focuses mainly on behavior modification.  In his enthusiasm for the “wartime mentality” he considers a healthier alternative, Piper tells more war stories than nonresistant Christians may be comfortable with.  His illustrations might be suspect, but his point is excellent:  “A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent.” (114)

Lest anyone infer from this that all Christians should quit their unspiritual jobs and pack up for the mission field, Piper devotes a lengthy chapter to the mission of living and working in the secular world of “eight  to five.”  How do we make much of Christ in a job that seems completely unrelated to growing in holiness?  Six sound Biblical strategies make this chapter alone worth the cost of the book.  The final chapter is a plea for renewed passion to see the gospel spread throughout the world, whether through our own missionary efforts or prayer and support for the work of others.

John Piper’s primary gift is expository preaching.  His books cannot be considered masterpieces of literary craftsmanship.  Read as sermons, however, they are outstanding.  This book is a collection of sermons from which any Christian will benefit, and its message will continue to convict you long after you have forgotten Piper’s outline and main points.  Don’t waste your life!