One Final Wasted Rant

No really. I'm pretty sure the rest of our Bible study book does not get me nearly as fired up.

At Bible study this Thursday, we learned that blogging is a wasted life. Well...poop.

John is apparently very popular with the ladies. Despite this picture (Josh is buried in there somewhere) segregation was not the flavor of the night and some pockets seemed to flirt with change. Ryan and Jacquilyn just flirted like normal.


Thank you John for chugging through this material!

Twas a meaty study. Piper (the author) is done laying the foundation for what is a wasted life. We know how God changed his life, examples of what a wasted life looks like, the passionate message from God's word justifying a life not-wasted, and the limits to what parts of our lives are covered by an un-wasted life (simple...there are none!)

My quotes don't do the book justice. Please consider reading it if you have any interest, I have extras! Piper earlier told a sad story of a couple who's only goal was to finish life out with an early retirement spent sailing, playing softball, and collecting sea shells on the beach until they die. "Look, Lord. See my shells!"

To be more blunt to you and I, he later claims ground for waste in our more common and likely daily motives - "[If]You just want people to like you. If people would just like being around you, you'd be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife, or husband, and a couple of good kids"..(ouch for me)..."and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends [after putting your service hours in], a fun retirement and a quick and easy death, and no hell - you would be satisfied. That is a tragedy in the making. A wasted life."

I talked to the guys at PRM basically about the two chapters in this book, how I continue to battle with a wasted life, and what things I know can help keep me from being locked into that fate. There are so many, and that's why we go to a skilled, knowledgeable scholar like Piper to learn the answers through God's word. Here's where I went with it Monday though.

1. Stay in God's word faithfully! - I promise you will be blessed with a vision to see God's glory made known in your life and application of his wisdom if you do with a heart open to real change, and without poor motives!

2. Communicate with God constantly! Not just in your regular quiet time. All day! "Thanks God!" "Forgive me Lord!" "Please help me Father!" "Lord please be with Jack today". He cannot be a personal God if we don't talk to Him. You can tell how closely you regard God in your life by how much you communicate with him. I guarantee most of us are currently too distracted picking up shells to do this.

3. Be with people on a regular basis who give you opportunities to not only be encouraged, but offer up opportunities to be productive.

4. Spend time regularly and often with at least one person with experience who challenges you, and who you are willing to be fully open to and challenged and convicted by. Friends who avoid investigating your real heart and motives and seeing RESULTS for God alone is about as good as a sea shell hunting partner.

5. Give God all the glory! Period!

Piper - "We are taught in a thousand ways", inside and outside the church "that love means increasing someone's self-esteem, helping them feel good. Helping them like what they see. This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. To make someone feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God (alone) is like taking someone to the alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors."

From this point on in the study, we focus one more tangible applications to Glorifying and boasting in no one other that Christ our Savior. The decision has already been made if one will let those applications mean what the author means, and if you will or will not choose to waste your life. It's so important to know that God's highest purpose for us is not simply a matter of opportunities we can take or miss. It's WHY. It's our goal! It's your heart the other 23 hours of the day! Your schedule and public attitude don't prove if you're wasting your life, but they give clues, sometimes really really big ones. My schedule for Friday, Saturday and Sunday (coming soon) give really really hard-to-deny clues that I am getting nowhere in managing my time better.