So I'm reading 2 really good books right now....."Don't Waste Your Life", by Piper and "Quest for More", by Tripp (i often read several books at one time....which usually leads to me having to go back and 're-read' them later!). But it's been interesting to see how similar these 2 books are...there messages are very much alike....therefore, I am assuming it is something God REALLY wanted me to get and focus on right now!
The message of the Piper book is pretty easy to guess.....basically, don't waste your life! He shares sad examples of people who have done that very thing...very eye opening. Piper has, through his own experience, the insight of other authors and Godly examples come to the conclusion that a life fully lived is one that 'fully displayed the glory of God' and 'to delight in that glory'. He says, "It was becoming clearer and clearer that if I wanted to come to the end of my life and not say, 'I've wasted it!', then I would need to press all the way in, and all the way up, to the ultimate purpose of God and join him in it. If my life was to have a single, all-satisfying, passion, it would have to be God's passion. And......God's passion was the display of his own glory and the delight of my heart." (pg 28).
How do we display His glory? I think he sums it up well...."to live our lives in a way that makes him (God) look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is." (pg 32) I was convicted when he asked the question, (paraphrased) "What do you think about when you are faced with 'awesomeness'?" Like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or at the bottom of the magnificent Alps? Do I think about the insignificance of man (ME!) or the greatness of God? How do I handle the "glory of God"? It really made me stop and think....
and that same thinking continued as I started reading Tripp's book, Quest for More. The subtitle of the book sums it up well...."living for something bigger than you".
He starts off by saying, "There is woven inside each of us a desire for something more - a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-by-day existence." (pg 14) And when we are part of that 'bigger thing', we find that it is what "yanks you out of bed in the morning, and sometimes the excitement of it all makes it hard to sleep. It makes all of the little things that you have to do every day seem more satisfying and more important because they are now connected to something more than self survival." And many of us have that 'bigger thing' in our lives, which is good....unless that thing is something other than God and his glory!
He uses the example of Adam and Eve...."they weren't placed in the garden for self survival and self satisfaction....likewise, we were meant to do more than make sure that all of our needs are fulfilled and all our desires are satisfied."(pg 16-17) He goes on to make the point, "...it is a functional human tragedy to live ONLY for those things (health, job, house, investments, family, friends, etc). It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence...." (pg 17) "it's a good thing to have purpose, but if your purpose isn't tied to glory, you have still denied your humanity." (pg 19)

He goes on to say much more....but that is just a taste of the perspective of this book...and the Piper book as well. I have been challenged to really grab a hold of my idea of purpose and to ask myself, "What is the big thing that I am living for right now?"......I'm ashamed to say that my answer is not, consistently, the glory of God....although there are thin moments of that purpose, but it is not always the theme of my life. Piper challenged me to come up with what I DO want my life to say.....and without analyzing it to death or trying to make it sound 'just right', I came up with.....'to make known the sacrifice of Christ, and to be an example of the joy found in the freedom and redemption that came as a result of that sacrifice'. And that through that, the glory of God would be easily seen and sought after.
I'm sure there is more I could add to that, but that is my heart today, at this moment.

I hope I get back here again to jot down some of the lessons learned as continue to read.....but if not, i highly recommend these 2 books!
Until then.....