Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

What excites your soul? What stirs happiness and joy in you? On what does your mind think when everything is still and your daydreams linger?This may not seem an immediately important question, and surely not a Christian one, but that assumption would wrong. There is no deeper or more necessary question for us to ask of ourselves than, "What do I treasure?" Our answer will shape our lives.This is exactly what John Piper is getting at in Desiring God. To him, "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." (p. 18) If we don't treasure Christ, we cannot enjoy Him and won't glorify Him. Too many Christians have sought to glorify God by refusing joy and happiness in this life in exchange for hope of joy and happiness in the afterlife. But Piper argues, like C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory that Christianity is not about asceticism (the denial of pleasure), but hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure). To Piper, the Christian life is one of Christian Hedonism: our greatest joy comes in his highest glory. This is what we are created for, what we long for, and what we naturally hope for. Our lives are meant to sing His praise because as Piper says, "we must come to see that God is love precisely because He relentlessly pursues the praises of His name in the hearts of His people." (p. 48) Listen to the words that John shares from C.S. Lewis' Reflections on the Psalms,"But the most obvious fact about praise - whether of God or any thing - strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise - lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game - praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least.I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: `Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?' The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed."What more could God give us to enjoy than Himself? "If He withholds Himself from our contemplation and companionship, no matter what else He gives us, He is not loving." (p. 48) And in receiving Him our heart leaps for joy (we call this worship). "In the end the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God Himself." (p.87) This desiring of God in affectionate adoration is true Biblical worship (Psalm 16:11; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 37:4; Psalm 42:1-2, 5-6; Psalm 63:1; Psalm 73:25-26; Psalm 130:5). Without Him, there is nothing that will stir our hearts, and without our hearts there can be no worship. "The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead." (p. 86) Desiring God then is the worshipful act of loving God.John Piper has given us a theological masterpiece in Desiring God. I remember reading this in college (vaguely), but I honestly didn't remember much of what I read. It seems that reading for an assignment and reading for joy are two very different things (and in a sense, that's kind of what this book is about).This book is a treasure chest of Gospel promise and eternal joy that your heart and soul will deeply appreciate. Consider this statement that John makes concerning money, "Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others." (p. 203) After reading this, I for one am thankful that God has blessed John as He has because the comfort and security and joy and pleasure that has been enough for John in learning to desire God has surely been an abundance for me.

Desiring God is a book devoted to helping readers find their happiness in God. The theme is that "God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him." Dr. Piper carefully builds his case for this concept and calls it Christian hedonism. The issue for the Christian is one of desire. Will one feast on the pleasures of sin or will he run to the streams that God offers and drink from his delights.Christian hedonism is really a philosophy of life that is driven by five convictions. 1) The longing to be happy is a universal experience, and it is good, not sinful. 2) We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy. Rather we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction. 3) The deepest and most enduring happiness is found in God alone. 4) The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in love. 5) To the extent we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. In other words, the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.Piper develops the concept of Christian hedonism by applying the principles to the subjects of conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions and suffering (Suffering has been added to the tenth anniversary edition of the book).Desiring God is filled to the rim with strengths. The writing is clear and thought-provoking. The content is not abstract and unrelated to life. Rather it hits the reader right between the eyes with the truth of God. Second, the writer comes to the table with a Reformed worldview which pervades the book [I might add that the writer rejects the Reformed emphasis on the Covenant of works]. Third, this book forces the reader to deal with matters of the heart. Forth, this book is radically God-centered. Every subject discussed comes back to the issue of the Lordship of Jesus and whether or not the reader is finding his complete satisfaction in Him.Piper has written a tremendous book. He has the heart of a pastor and the mind of a theologian, a combination difficult to find in twenty-first century pastors. Desiring God is a passionate book. The contents will not only bring the reader to tears, but will engage his thinking in ways beyond the scope of his imagination. Desiring God is a practical book. It challenges readers to re-examine cherished presuppositions and think biblically about crucial life issues.- One of the most important books written in the last 100 years!