Chapter 1: My Search for a Single Passion to Live By

In chapter 1, Piper recalls a plaque on the wall of his family's home about having a single pass at life. He also recalls a poem he wrote as a teenager called The Lost Years. And he describes a burning question: what would it mean to waste a life?

That question sits well beside Psalm 90, a psalm the ESV titles as a prayer of Moses. “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” Moses is not being gloomy for fun. He is measuring.

Try the math. Seventy years is about 25,550 days. Eighty years is about 29,200. That sounds like a lot until you realize some of those days are already spent. The psalm turns this into a prayer: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” The goal is not panic. It is wisdom, which means seeing life as it really is and choosing accordingly.

Notice what the psalmist asks God to do. He does not say, 'Help me count.' He says, 'Teach us.' We are slow at this. We assume we have time. So we need God to show us what our days actually are.

Piper's search moves in a particular direction. He asks what the opposite of wasting a life would be. He is looking for one essence, one main point that could fulfil every good aim. And he shifts his question from what is permissible to what is essential. That shift is worth feeling. Asking what is permissible is the question of a person checking a fence. Asking what is essential is the question of a person choosing a destination. Most of us are good at the first. We can name a hundred things that are allowed. It is harder to say what one thing matters most.

Psalm 90 helps because it will not let the permissible question stay comfortable. If our days are short and soon gone, then filling them with things that are merely not wrong is a thin plan. A heart of wisdom wants to know what is worth the days.

You might feel a little vertigo here. That is okay. Let the number do its work, and let the prayer answer it. God can teach you to count.

If counting your days stirs up fear, grief over someone you have lost, or heaviness that does not lift, bring that to a pastor, a counselor, or a friend. You do not have to sort it out by yourself.

Chapter 1 holds several pieces, and today we look at three. Piper recounts his father's sermon illustration that only what is done for Christ will last. He describes the pull of existentialism, which holds that there is no meaning to be found outside ourselves. And he describes learning what he calls the obvious. Take those as three separate threads and let Ecclesiastes 1 sit beside them.

Start with the Preacher. “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” The Hebrew word for vanity, hebel, literally means a breath or vapor. It is something you cannot hold. He then asks the question: “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?”

Those two words matter: under the sun. The Preacher is describing life seen only from within this world, as if nothing else were true. From that spot, everything cycles. The sun rises and sets. The wind goes around and around. The streams run to the sea, and the sea is never full. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Even memory fades: no one remembers the former things.

That can sound a lot like the existentialist's mood, so be careful. Existentialism, as Piper describes it, says there is no meaning to be found outside ourselves. The Preacher is not simply agreeing. His complaint is that nothing under the sun lasts or satisfies. Ecclesiastes keeps pointing beyond that, and the book's closing words direct the reader to fear God and keep his commands, because God will bring every deed to account (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). In the Bible's own telling, the emptiness is the problem to be solved, not the final answer.

Now set the father's illustration beside it, as a thought of our own. If everything done under the sun is forgotten, then the claim that what is done for Christ will last is exactly the kind of claim worth testing. Do not treat it as a slogan. Ask whether it is true.

As for the obvious, Piper says that is something he learned. Whatever he names on the page, you can ask your own version: what obvious thing might I keep stepping over? Often the plain thing is the thing we miss.

Then ask the question this lesson is really for. What is the one main thing you are living for right now? Be honest. It may be comfort, approval, a career, a person, or a plan. Name it.

If reading about vanity matches a flat, numb feeling you cannot shake, such as lost interest in things you used to enjoy or a sense that nothing matters, talk to a doctor, counselor, or pastor soon, and do not wait until it passes. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, contact a crisis line or emergency services right away. In the US, you can call or text 988.