A Wasted Life!

I can often be heard exhorting and saying to those who are close to me, and to my congregation, the words from the title of a book, “Don’t waste your life!” A book written by my mentor and friend, Dr. John Piper, it calls for the radical pursuit of a life lived with single passion—with the passion to “joyfully display the supreme excellencies of God in all the spheres of your life!” The wasted life is the life without this passion. So many of us spend the better part of our lives thinking, strategizing, and planning of ways to be noticed by others, and to be made much of, while the Bible tells a different story. It declares the wonder of God, and His desire to be made much of by that which He has created! That is, we have been created to make much of Him- God, not to be made much of by Him! To make much of God in every sphere of your life is to heed that word from the Apostle Paul, “that you live carefully, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time seeing that the days are evil” (Eph.5:15-16). Yes the days are evil, and it is not the time to buy the bill of goods being sold through slogans like “freedom 55”. Anyone can waste their life putzing around making much of nothing, but it is a lot harder getting to know God, making much of Him at all times in all places, and positively influencing the people and culture to which you belong. “King Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem for 8 years, and to no one’s sorrow, departed- died!” (2Ch.21:20) To no one’s sorrow he died. That is a wasted life! Making much of God, is this the single passion of your life today?