Condensing a book about how to not waste your life

It's not every month that the President declares a weekend two days longer than usual. Suddenly my schedule, for whatever it's worth, feels empty, and I gradually fill it up with activities I hardly do these days: like meeting old friends or watching a good movie in cinema or sleeping for most of the afternoon. I will probably meet a couple of friends for a night, then spend the entire holiday at home with the company of a good book.

When I woke up at 4 am this morning, it was raining cats and dogs. The similarity with typhoon Ondoy was striking. I thought it was going to flood in my brother's apartment. But I liked the cold, the soothing rhythm of rain water hitting the roof, that I did not have a hard time going back to sleep.

I spent the entire morning condensing a book for FaithWalk magazine, a Christian digest. Thankfully I finished it—that is, sent the manuscript to the editors—before lunchtime. I was assigned to work on John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, a personal favorite in the Piper collection (freely downloadable here). It's a book that defines a wasted life and points to the reader the ultimate way to avoid that: live for God, make much of Him in your life.

John Piper writes, "The opposite of wasting your life is to live by a single, soul-satisfying passion for the supremacy of God in all things."

"How serious is this word 'single'? Can life really have that much “singleness” of purpose? Can work and leisure and relationships and eating and lovemaking and ministry all really flow from a single passion? Is there something deep enough and big enough and strong enough to hold all that together? 

This question drives us to . . . the death of Jesus on the cross. Living for the glory of God must mean living for the glory of Christ crucified. Christ is the image of God. He is the sum of God’s glory in human form. And his beauty shines most brightly at his darkest hour."

Piper goes on to quote the apostle Paul, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).

He says, "Only boast in the cross of Jesus Christ. This is a single idea. A single goal for life. A single passion. Only boast in the cross. The word “boast” can be translated “exult in” or “rejoice in.” Only exult in the cross of Christ. Only rejoice in the cross of Christ. Paul says, Let this be your single passion, your single boast and joy and exultation."

Head over to the official FaithWalk Facebook page to know how to get a copy of previous releases. The newest issue will be released around December, if I'm not mistaken.