One Sentence & One Paragraph that Changed My Life
And Could Change Yours Too
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The Sentence that Changed My Life
While we undoubtedly live in a fractured culture, there is one thing we all share in common— We are all pursuing our own happiness.
Your first reaction to that idea might be to push back against it. But if you allow yourself to ponder it at length, I think you’ll find that it’s 100% true. We are always pursuing that which we think will bring about the most happiness.
This is one of the premises in John Piper’s well-known book, Desiring God.1 The second premise is that God’s glory and our happiness are not at odds with one another. In fact, they go together. Thus Piper’s famous sentence — the one that created one of the biggest paradigm shifts in my soul and changed my life — God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
I first came across that sentence in 2011. Since that time, I’ve gone on to enjoy a number of other authors, pastors, and scholars, many of whom have done my soul much spiritual good. I’ve also come to disagree with Piper on other matters here and there throughout the years. Even so, that one short little sentence has been set in stone in my thinking as a foundational belief.
The Paragraph that Changed My Life
Jonathan Edwards undoubtedly played a large role in shaping the way Piper understands God’s glory in all things. But I would argue that a close second would be C.S. Lewis.
Lewis was seeking to correct a common misconception about the Christian life. Many believe that Christians are those who forgo all pleasures so that we can avoid hell and go to heaven one day. And while there may be a kernel of truth in that statement, the problem is that it is not complete.
Lewis argued that the problem isn’t our seeking of pleasure. It’s that we allow ourselves to be satisfied with so little. Here’s the paragraph he penned that changed my life…
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Living the Good Life
Are you picking up what Piper and Lewis are laying down? We are all pursuing our own happiness. The trick is in what or whom we are locating that happiness. And here’s the deal…
Locating our happiness in the right source = the good life.
The good life and the Christian life are one and the same. The happiest person is the one who has come to see the beauty and glory of God in the Person and work of Christ.
Yes, self-denial is central in our discipleship. Christ Himself was clear about that (Matt. 16:24). You can’t have one foot in the kingdom of God while the other is firmly planted in this world. But that’s just the thing: We are called to stop trying to satisfy our souls with the rotten banana peels of this world and instead to come and enjoy the riches of the feast which are found only in the Gospel.
Maybe that’s why the Psalmist beckons us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8).
Blessings!
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John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (New York: Multnomah Books, 2011).