"don't waste your life."

I finally finished this book (from my reading list) a few days ago. It took me longer than expected. Partially because of workload, but mainly because I found it a difficult read (Jess warned me). However, aside from the Bible itself, the content of the book is unparalleled to any others I have read. And the timing was perfect (and likely not coincidental). Some of the highlights for me included:

Pg 46. The author (John Piper) retells a story that he saw in Readers Digest years ago…he writes “I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider the story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who 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 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. Don’t waste your life.”

Talk about making a guy rethink all of his goals/ambitions in life.

There were also some comforting excerpts and scriptures that I found very timely, given my current “situation.”

Pg 76. Piper references what Jesus said to Paul when Paul was in pain…“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8) Paul responds to Christ…”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, HARDSHIPS, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10) Piper elaborates that “Love is not Christ’s making much of us or making life easy. Love is doing what he must do, at great cost to himself (and often to us), to enable us to enjoy making much of him forever.

I found this timely. This is the attitude Jess and I took towards this mobilization, and it is comforting to see this validation…which is that Christ is doing what he must do in order to ensure that his plan is fulfilled. Hence, my deployment is all part of the plan, and I am in no position to question it.

So how is it that my deployment is part of the plan? I believe I have been placed in a unique position from which I have the ability to affect others for the good of Christ. The following versus, which are referenced in the book, speak very directly to this…

Pg 35 references…“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Also referenced in the book…“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.” (Proverbs 10:11)

Further validating this is what I feel is the best chapter in the book. Chapter 8 is dedicated to the argument that not all are called to be pastors, missionaries, etc. Most of us are called to secular occupations, and are to affect the world through those occupations with hard and honest work, and lives that are Godly examples. How else is such a secular world to see and hear the truth? Followers of Christ must be intertwined within the world, not segregated. This does not mean that I will never hear such a calling, it just means that to this point in my life, I have not heard such a call. I am confident that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.