Okay, I Decided

I figure since there are 52 weeks in a year that there will be plenty of time to think of all the great books out there to recommend. This put me at ease to go ahead and pick a book to recommend. So I'm going with Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. This is a wonderful read, and fitting for both a believer looking for passion to walk in a manner worthy of the Kingdom of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, and for an unbeliever who may be searching out how they can make their life count for a purpose that is real and lasting. This book is wonderful, challenging, and I trust will drive anyone who reads it to their knees in fervent prayer for God to give them grace to not waste their life. Here is an excerpt from the opening preface of the book: taken from the online edition of Don't Waste Your Life at http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_dwyl/dwyl_ch1-2.pdf

If you are a Christian, you are not your own. Christ has bought you at the price of his own death. You now belong doubly to God: He made you, and he bought you. That means your life is not your own. It is God’s. Therefore, the Bible says, “Glorify God in your body.” God made you for this. He bought you for this. This is the meaning of your life.

If you are not yet a Christian, that is what Jesus Christ offers: doubly belonging to God, and being able to do what you were made for. That may not sound exciting. Glorifying God may mean nothing to you. That’s why I tell my story in the first two chapters, called “Created for Joy.” It was not always plain to me that pursuing God’s glory would be virtually the same as pursing my joy. Now I see that millions of people waste their lives because they think these paths are two and not one.

There is a warning. The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.