“If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full,” John Piper writes in his 2003 book Don’t Waste Your Life. Lest you think he speaks from a place of ease, when Piper was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he wrote a short follow-up to this called, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” Chief among his points was, “You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.”


What he says about life and suffering are hard to swallow. Who wants a hard life? Who wants to trust in a God who allows – even designs – sorrows to come your way? Yet Piper is only recapping what Paul has written: “I consider my life worth nothing to me.” This is a piece of Christian truth that is hard to comprehend. But if we don’t believe that God designs our sufferings, then we deny God’s sovereign power and overwhelming love.


May your trials glorify God, deepen your relationship with Him, reflect the good news, and prepare you for eternity with Him.