Someone recently posted a quote on Facebook from John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life, spurring some old thoughts on the subject. The following was originally posted back in April of 2008.
Don’t Waste Your Life
I’m currently reading a book with that title, and it’s really challenging me in good ways.
The author, John Piper, writes about the tragedy of a wasted life. He begins by citing a married couple who take an early retirement in their late 50’s and spend their time in Florida cruising on their boat, playing softball and collecting shells.
We can waste our life no matter what our age and occupation. It’s not a salvation issue. We can fully belong to Christ and still end up with a wasted life. As Piper puts it, we could get to Heaven and say to Jesus, “Here, look at my seashells”.
Writing specifically to the Christian, he takes a whole 3 chapters to illustrate how our purpose is to pursue God’s glory… and enjoy it in the process. So our joy is His joy. Our meaning is displaying His greatness. In creating us for His glory, he creates us for our highest joy.
This is a strange thought to an unbeliever. If anyone else were to exult themselves to that level, we would view them selfish to the extreme. One might ask, If God can love me, how can it be love to create something to simply glorify himself? But that is viewing it from our distortion of love. We think love is being made much of. It’s making self the object of our highest affection, and evaluating everyone by how they treat us, how they make us feel, how they value us.
But God changes that distorted view of love. He liberates from the bondage of self-regard so that we enjoy making much of him forever. This is true fullness of joy. This supreme satisfaction is what should call the Christian to truly love others. Not by making them feel good about themselves, but by showing them God and His gospel.
Piper puts it this way. “To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors.”
I read for a couple more chapters, enjoying his illustrations and stories. Then I came to a surprising chapter about taking risk. He wrote,
“If our single, all-embracing passion is to make much of Christ in life and death, and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right. To run from it is to waste your life.”
1 Corinthians 15:31, Luke 9:23, 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 and 12:9-10
Whatever gain I had [in life], I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of he surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that i may gain Christ. Philippians 3:7-8
We do not know the future. We don’t even know what will happen for sure within the next five minutes. In this aspect, we cannot avoid risk. It’s a part of us. It should cause us to acknowledge that there is no real security. He writes that our myth of safety needs to be exploded.
Take the story of Esther. She did not have a special revelation from God. She simply made a decision based on wisdom, love for her people, and trust in God. She did not know what the outcome of her actions would be, but handed the results over to God saying, “…and if I perish, I perish.”
Look at what happened to the people of Israel when they stood at the border of the Promised Land, unable to explode their myth of safety. They didn’t want to take the risk of battling the giants and instead murmured, complained and even spoke of returning to Egypt! The result? Wasted years and wasted lives.
I’ll again quote Piper for he says it best.
“What about you? Are you caught in the enchantment of security, paralyzed from taking any risks for the cause of God? Or have you been freed by the power of the Holy Spirit from the mirage of Egyptian safety and comfort? Do you men ever say with Joab, “For the sake of the name, I’ll try it! And may the LORD do what seems good to him”? Do you women ever say with Esther, “For the sake of Christ, I’ll try it! And if I perish, I perish”?
So many times its tempting to remain stagnant because its easy to worship at the idol of security. What that really means is bowing down to fear. Fear of the unknown is a difficult thing. It’s been challenging to me search my heart and root it out.
There’s a need for prayer to ask for guidance and wisdom. And then there’s the next step of taking action. How easy it would be for me to never move forward by simply claiming that I’m not clear what God’s direction is in a certain area!
I am not a natural risk taker. But being married to a man who isn’t afraid of change and risk stretches me, and yet frees me. I have peace because I pray continually for God’s will and hand in all my husband’s decisions. Therefore I can simply trust, because by following him I am in essence trusting in God. So even if he makes what I think is a bad choice, I can lay it at Christ’s feet and not fret or worry.
The last thought that’s challenged me in this book so far (I’m not finished so there’s sure to be more!) is what Piper calls a “wartime lifestyle”. When making choices, especially about how we spend money, it should be with this wartime mindset.
We acknowledge there is a war going on between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief, and there are weapons to be funded and used. Weapons of the Gospel, prayer, and self-sacrificing love.
How easy it is to slip into a “peacetime mindset” and focus on comfort and fun. Or just get wrapped up in my own day to day busyness and forget the larger picture. If there truly is a war, how can I be content to live a life of ease? To simply work, play, sleep and repeat day after day? To talk only to the same people; those like-minded individuals or families who are just like me? To live without truly engaging others by isolating myself within my home and my family?
This was challenging in and of itself. But then I came across this paragraph;
“Why not speak of a “simple lifestyle”? It is more helpful to think of a wartime lifestyle than a merely simple lifestyle. Simplicity may have a romantic ring and a certain aesthetic appeal that is foreign to the dirty business of mercy in the dangerous places of the world. Simplicity may also overlook the fact that, in wartime, major expenses for complex weapons and troop training are needed. These may not look simple, and may be very expensive, but the whole country sacrifices to make them happen. Simplicity may be inwardly directed and may benefit no one else. A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent. (2 Corinthians 12:15)”
What a great thought. Simplicity is so often over-romanticized. In an effort to stick to basics, the focus can increasingly become self and it becomes an idol.
While we are patting ourselves on the back for practicing frugality and plainness, those on the front lines of battle are crying out for our help and support.
Further, the related terms independent homesteading and self-sufficient living can be used to justify a reclusive lifestyle. Maybe it’s helpful in a limited sense to our self when we are isolated and practice mere avoidance. But how does that impact anyone, especially for the Gospel? How does that prepare our children for what they’re sure to face if they do not choose the same reclusive lifestyle?
Ultimately, whether we squander our time here on earth, become immobilized by fear of risk, or end up too focused on our tiny dot of the universe, we’re likely to miss the fullness of a life lived radically for Christ.
We’re likely to waste our lives.
Tags: Christianity, presuppositions, spirituality, worldview