DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE
By John Piper
Christ Is All Media Publications . 180 pages. £7.99
ISBN 1 904774 00 8
Don't waste your time on Don't waste your life; here's why:
1. It's that John Piper 'enjoying God' again. He does that in all his stuff. It's all over his website www.desiringGOD.org and you can give it a quick flick through there. Why spend money on paper pages - you might need to stop and think about them.
2. There's a lot of Bible here. He starts: 'The Bible says É' and then keeps quoting it all the way through. Boring, boring. But then he does get to driving it home.
3. Too much history. Luther, Bunyan, Judson, Jonathan Edwards (no, the American who's been dead for ages), M'Cheyne, Dylan - they're all so yesterday. We are the now generation - aren't we?
4. He pushes in your face. His life, my life, your life. If only he concentrated on important things, but he keeps coming back to the sacrifices people have to make in wartime. Nobody wants to face that scary stuff nowadays.
5. The focus is wrong. He is preoccupied with other people, people we don't know. We're not interested in 'Making others glad in God'. Who does he think we are, Christians or something?
6. It gets under your skin. If you make it to the end you'll find he piles it on for missions - anecdotes, stats, even prayer. For some it means home support, for others a cross-cultural transplant.
But, if you want to know whether Christ deserves that much of your life, you must make time to read this excellent book.
Alan Gibson,
serves with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Partnership Promotion
