John Piper has written another excellent book to add to his body of work; Dont Waste Your Life (Crossway) is valuable reading. The style is easy, but the content will have you going back again and again to extract truth for deeper meditation.
The opening chapters are autobiographical, setting the stage for principles that follow. He gives credit to his early influences at home, at college, and in his reading. The writings of Jonathan Edwards provided a turning point in his realization of lifes purpose: The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. This concept of joy has been dealt with in his earlier work, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. Pipers topic headings within each chapter are as thought provoking as the content: Is Eternal Life a Heaven Full of Mirrors? Shall We Prize What He Presents or What it Portrays of Him? I found the chapter Making Much of Christ From 8 to 5 very encouraging, and the subsequent chapter on missions was sobering. Perhaps the illustration that captures the essence of the book best is the story from Readers Digest recounted in chapter three, and highlighted on the back cover. Piper tells of the couple that took early retirement in Florida, playing softball, cruising on their boat, and collecting seashells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: Look, Lord. See my shells. That is a tragedy.
John Piper has a way of presenting deep truth in a way that is engaging and understandable. He has wrestled with his content, and the books final chapter is his prayer for the reader to not waste life, to be glad in God at any cost, to treasure Christ above life. You will be humbled as you read. Pam Glass, Christian Book Previews.com
