DWYL - Chapter One

Week one of our new preaching series is done. As an addition to the sermon and study we do on each chapter I thought I would also write a blog post with some of my own personal reflections each week. If you're following through the series with us, this might just give an extra insight into my head each week.

You can listen to the chapter one sermon here.

For me the big point of reflection from chapter one comes with this quote.

There is an Answer with a capital A. To miss it would mean a wasted life. To find it would mean having a unifying Answer to all my questions
~John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p17

The majority of people living today believe they govern their own life.  That their experience outweighs their existence... and because their experience may differ from someone else's then no one has the right to tell them what the answer to their life is (i.e no one can tell me what to do; no one has any authority over my life except me).

How wrong they are, no matter how much they want to believe it.  Because God exists outside of human experience. God created everything we experience, He was around before we experienced anything, and if we were to die tomorrow His creation would remain even after we are gone from it.  With that in mind, there must be an answer when seeking a meaningful life that comes from the One who created that life in the first place.

Finding that Answer will answer every other question about your life - because the Answer will impact everything. But not finding it will mean no matter how much you accomplish, your life will be a failure and a waste.

Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last.

Jesus is the Answer! It's as simple and as objective as that.  You need to find your single passion in Jesus or everything will be a waste. It takes people time to come to that understanding though. Some people need logic and reason to understand how Jesus can exist/be God/redeem/rule - others need emotional connection and experience.

I pray whatever you need, that you will at least be open to seeing, and that God provides.