Don't Waste Your Life
Overview
John Piper writes, “I will 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 their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.…’ Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ That is a tragedy.
“God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.”
Most people slip by in life without a passion for God, spending their lives on trivial diversions, living for comfort and pleasure, and perhaps trying to avoid sin. This book will warn you not to get caught up in a life that counts for nothing. It will challenge you to live and die boasting in the cross of Christ and making the glory of God your singular passion. If you believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, read this book, learn to live for Christ, and don’t waste your life.
Wait! You can get a better deal by purchasing this resource in the John Piper Collection.
Product Details
- Title: Don't Waste Your Life
- Author: John Piper
- Publisher: Crossway Books
- Publication Date: 2003
- Pages: 191
Top Highlights
“If you don’t point people to God for everlasting joy, you don’t love. You waste your life.” (Page 35)
“God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion—namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.” (Page 31)
“The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.” (Page 44)
“God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever.” (Page 35)
“The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness.” (Page 33)
Reviews
10 ratings
Brayden Brookshier
2/6/2016
This book is not merely motivational. It strikes the heart by connecting scripture with our deep need for a purpose much bigger than ourselves. John Piper's book is captivating and well written. He also cites many theological giants to support his ideas. I believe this book is worthy of our time to glean from one of the greatest pastors of our contemporary times!
Stephen H Janco
1/2/2016
Matthew Gunn
1/1/2015
Jonathan St.Clair
3/6/2014
Kayla Kinley
10/3/2013
David and Allison Preston
9/26/2013
Daniel Caballero.
8/13/2013
RevSarge
8/5/2013
Ward Walker
1/15/2012
Lecrae sang/spoke at an Orange Conference I attended; I was impressed by his talent for crafting Biblical perspectives into rap form, and learned he was heavily influenced by a study group reading John Piper's works. When Logos offered this, I jumped on it & picked this resource to read first since it parallels a Lecrae song. My intention was to use this book as a group study by College/Career folks in our church--but I never got the opportunity to do that (God opened other doors). It is 10 chapters and 191 pages. A great read to encourage you to set your shoulder to the plow.
