First Line Friday #6: Don't Waste Your Life

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

 

Book:  Don't Waste Your Life
Author:  John Piper
Genre:  Christian Living / Theology

 〰First Line〰

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My father was an evangelist.  In fact, he still is, even though he doesn't travel now.  When I was a boy, there were rare occasions when my mother and sister and I traveled with him and heard him preach.  I trembled to hear my father preach.  In spite of the predictable opening humor, the whole thing struck me as absolutely blood-earnest.
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Synopsis:  (From Goodreads:

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!

 〰First Thoughts〰

Though this author is a prolific author and bigwig in the Christian community, I've only read one of his books.  I was scanning through Hoopla Digital looking for something else when I ran across this volume.  What struck me was the title.  It's no secret that at 50 years old, I'm a very late bloomer and am just starting to get a mere taste of the life I could have had sooner had I known how to get there.  Like Tony Evans' book It's Not Too Late, I hope that Piper's book will show me more of how to not so much make up for lost time, but add immense value to the time I have now.  As I said here, I do not want to spend my remaining years living a life of no significance.  Life is truly a gift that I don't want to waste.

So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?