I’m listening to an audio book, a reading of John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but I thought that the way that he opened the book was not only appropriate, but spoke to me because I have thought similar thoughts.
He said that his father, who was a traveling preacher, told a story about an elderly man that the local church had prayed for over many years. He would come to church, but he had never accepted Christ, never turned his life over to Jesus.
But one day after having preached, the man came to the front, took his father’s hand and believed.
But having done that, the man looked back at his life and realized that what he had done was for naught. There was no meaning.
“I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”, the man said.
For many years, I thought I had done the same thing. I had made money. I had acquired many things. I had scaled the ladder in my job. But in the end, what was it? It was nothing, nothing that would last. It was a waste.
And so I couldn’t continue in that way. I couldn’t continue down that same road. I didn’t want to come to the same point that this man had come to. I didn’t want to say that I had wasted my life. That was not an option, so we changed, and changed dramatically.
Why is it that we don’t seek meaning? Why is it that we prefer that which is material and that which is temporary. The only things that are meaningful and lasting are the things that are those that are eternal. These are the things that are worth pursuing. These are the things that are worth giving our lives to. All else is nothing but a waste.