Excerpt from Don't Waste Your Life:
I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a 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 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t.
Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.
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I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a 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 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t.
Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.
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If you could spare some time, I ask that you listen to what John Piper has to say on 'how the supremacy of Christ creates radical Christian sacrifice'.
Some bits of what he said:
The world is not going to glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy and healthy and prosperous. A very simple reason why- that's what they live for... They're not impressed with us, prosperous, wealthy, safe middle class, 'do what everyone else does' people.. Don't live your life like that, it'll be wasted.
Some bits of what he said:
The world is not going to glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy and healthy and prosperous. A very simple reason why- that's what they live for... They're not impressed with us, prosperous, wealthy, safe middle class, 'do what everyone else does' people.. Don't live your life like that, it'll be wasted.
Must I be carried to the skies?On flowery beds of ease,?
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
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