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Here are some questions for
those who lead and teach high school and/or college age students. Are you
looking for a book or resource that will be deeply challenging to both the
students and yourself? Are you looking for a topic to discuss that covers the
really big issues of living with purpose and making much of the time we have
been given here by the Lord? Are you looking for material on these topics that
are coming from a strong reformed and biblical point of view? Then I humbly
recommend John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life.
A word of warning right from
the start, this will not be a quick or easy read. Piper, while aiming this book
at mature high school and college age students, still writes in at an intense
level that encourages the reader to dig for the richness of the thoughts being
presented. This is not at all to say that’s bad. Rather, it is excellent and
encourages everyone reading to stretch and grow by working through the pages and
discussing these strong truths.
Piper gives plenty of stories
from his personal journey to find the God-honoring purpose in life. If you have
read other books by John Piper you will notice familiar phrases throughout the
book, (“God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”, “The Cross of
Christ, the blazing center of the glory of God”, “Gladly making others glad in
God”, etc.). However, these are presented in the context of communicating them
to the rising generation of disciples. The book is quite solid overall, yet the
chapters, “Living to Prove He Is More Precious Than Life” and “Making Much of
Christ from 8 to 5” are truly outstanding.
Piper closes the book with a
seven-page prayer that I appreciate very much. Regarding sin, Piper prays, “Not
only did it rob our souls of that one joy that you designed to satisfy us for
eternity [worth], but worse, it robbed you of your honored place as Treasure of
our lives.” On the purpose of writing and speaking truth, “But I have tried to
probe your written Word and say what you have said. That is my only claim to
truth—that I have echoed what you wrote.” And of the church he prayerfully
writes, “Let love flow from your saints, and may it, Lord, be this: that even if
it costs our lives, the people will be glad in God…Take your honored place, O
Christ, as the all-satisfying Treasure of the world.”
While I do not agree with how
much emphasis he places on some things, this is an exceptional book that the
Lord can use to cause growth to happen in the lives of all who read and discuss
it. Buy the book.
Dean Conkel, Youth and
Family Ministries
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