The book reads like a sermon--conversational, engaging, but also repetitive. For example, chapter three recapitulates chapter two, for the most part, with few new ideas. Piper's writing is more like a fugue. He develops a single theme, inverting it, turning it backwards, transposing it, and playing these developments in different combinations by different hands in different keys. But it is always the same tune--the sovereignty of God and its relation to our joy. Don't Waste Your Life is no different. It echoes much of what is in Desiring God, with a taste of Let the Nations Be Glad. The rhythm of this book synchronizes with the rhythm of Piper's heart and ministry.

For those facing mid-life crisis, for those striking out in their adult life with a afield of possibilities, for those who feel stuck and wonder how to make this life worth something, I recommend this book.

Let me speak on this personally for a moment. In the midst of job changes and life changes, I found this book challenging me: What is the heart of my pursuits? Is it the glory of Christ? Does it depend on him? Does it find joy only because of what he's done on the cross? The book helped me fall into God's grace rather than my creaturely comforts and desire to reflect him rather than myself in not only personal life changes, but national changes as the United States experiences economic difficulty.

This book is reminiscent of Joe Stowell's Obsession with Significance. It doesn't downplay our desires for significance but redirects our motivations.

Review by Heather A. Goodman