A life is wasted when it is spent chasing things, even good things. But the life that is hidden with Christ in God, that life has no waste. Marriage, singleness, talents, and times, those things are the gift, not the prize. You waste your life when you live for those things. But you enjoy life when your faith is in the One who has graciously given you all things.

“This is the main message of Ecclesiastes in a nutshell: life in God’s world is a gift, not gain.”

-David Gibson

As a high schooler, I first heard the song “Don’t Waste Your Life.” I then learned that it was based on John Piper’s book by the same name. In college, I decided to read it, and my whole thinking on the goals of my life changed. I realized I could live my whole life chasing goals, only to look back and realize it was for naught. I became terrified by the thought. What if in all my chasing, I failed? Or worse, what if I succeeded and it amounted to nothing?

Years later, I would read David Gibson’s book, “Living Life Backward.” I realized that regardless of what I have been chasing, I will die. One day, everything I have done will end, and I will be forgotten.

As a young man, this was sobering. I realized I was walking around drunk on the belief that I was invincible and that everything I did mattered so deeply. But memories of the best of us are like trying to remember a dream. We reach for it, but it never fully becomes corporeal.

In school, in movies, songs, and more, I was told that life was about that chase. If I worked hard and lived right, then I might make it out on top. Yet, Solomon, in all his wisdom, threw cold water on that dream. We all end up six feet under.

Sounds pretty depressing. However, being awakened from the drunken stupor of chasing after the wind was actually freeing. Knowing I was going to die did not make me lose hope; instead, it felt like I was finally freed from the addiction of the chase.

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