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QUEST FOR MORE A Book Review by Massimo Lorenzini Tripp, Paul David. A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger than You. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007. Introduction In Quest for More, Paul Tripp offers a book that is designed to challenge believers to get beyond a mediocre or casual Christian life. Drawing from his roughly thirty years of counseling experience, Tripp is familiar with the many ways believers can get side-tracked from their commitment to follow Christ. With many explanations and examples, Tripp leaves no stone unturned in exposing the myriad of ways Christians busy themselves with building their own little kingdoms and miss out on the real joy of living for God’s big kingdom. This book is intended as a sort of sin detox for the soul of the North American Christian, especially the one who may not at first think he needs it. Summary In the first half of the book Paul Tripp seeks to strip away the idols of our hearts. He demonstrates the futility of reducing our lives to the shape and size of our lives. We were not created to live for self-glory, but transcendent glory, namely, God. This book “is an encouragement to remember and affirm that your humanity only really lives when it is connected to the transcendent glory that can only be found in God” (23). Chapter two introduces the idea that the deceitfulness of sin is that it promises more but delivers less. The lie of the serpent was that Eve could discover a greater and more satisfying kingdom to live for than God’s. She could establish her own little kingdom where she was at the center. All she must do is step out from God’s narrow confines and live life on her own terms. Chapter three presents the sad consequences of sin on humanity. The devil’s lie is that autonomy is the key to transcendence. The truth is that autonomy destroys the transcendence man needs. We need to be aware of the effects of sin so that we can know from where we have fallen. We were not created to live for our own kingdoms. Even Christians can wrongly assume they are living for God’s kingdom when in reality they care little for what does not concern them directly. But God’s kingdom far surpasses our own personal concerns. Chapter four addresses how to discover if we are living for our own little kingdoms. Matthew 6:19-35 provides the framework of diagnosing our hearts. When our hearts turn to an endless seeking after earthly treasures and personal needs, we are engaging in building our little kingdoms. In chapter five Tripp uncovers how we not only engage in personal kingdom-building but we seek to enculturate others into the values of our kingdoms. Christ, however, comes to demolish every kingdom that would compete with his. The power of the kingdom of self has been broken by the power of the cross. Chapter six explains how the kingdom of self can masquerade as the kingdom of God. A good way to tell the difference is to examine the fruit of the “costume kingdom.” We may portray ourselves as excited about the gospel, but what really motivates us is the hope that God will give me what I really want, such as a great marriage or peace in my heart. Tripp calls the reader to take off the mask. When we settle for building the kingdom of self, the shrink dynamic takes place. Chapter six explains the difference between the contours of God’s kingdom and the shrunken kingdom. In God’s kingdom, God’s purposes become functional life goals and what God declares is truly valuable are treasured and provide boundaries in which we live. The shrunken kingdom values the here and now, the me and mine, the wants and needs, the physical and material, and entitlements and rights. The antidote to the kingdom of self is living with Christ at the center of everything I think, desire, say, and do as presented in chapter eight. Without a commitment to live with Christ at the center of our lives we inevitably will shrink the size of our lives to the size of our lives. In the process we rob ourselves of our own humanity because we were created to live in community with our Creator. We must ask ourselves what tends to compete with Christ for centrality in our world. Chapter nine highlights that Christ’s call to die to self is a compassionate call to offer us real life. What we naturally assume to offer life really leads to death (Prov 14:12). Human nature would be quite satisfied living for self. But we are to be reminded that we are called to be followers, not masters. The promise of the kingdom of self will not deliver. The lure of a self-directed life is so strong that only death to self can deliver us. It is a hard call, but the only way to experience the life God intends for us. Chapter ten is a call to Jesus-focused living. In chapter eleven Tripp offers an interesting insight about groaning. That is, while believers can gratefully enjoy the comforts of the created world, there should always be a groaning in our hearts for the basic fallenness of the world and our desire to see Christ in his glory. Our fulfillment should be in God, not in things. We need to ask what makes us groan. Jazz becomes a metaphor in chapter twelve for living within God’s overall structures, yet finding freedom for creativity as we listen to him and others. We make harmonious music with the King as we live in intimate, dependent community with him. Forgiveness is the theme of chapter thirteen. Asking for forgiveness is hard. “It’s a war between self-righteousness and unearned grace” (160). In chapter fourteen Tripp reminds us that we are lonely in an ultimate sense because we long to be with Christ in glory. We try to fill our lives with various interests and activities. The Bible calls this the “love of the world.” We must identify where other lovers are competing for our love for Christ. Chapter fifteen is a call to sacrifice. We all make sacrifices for the things we cherish. “A true follower of Jesus holds him as the central treasure of his heart and so is willing to make significant personal sacrifices in pursuit of him” (180). Chapter sixteen contrasts two angers: The anger of God and the anger of man. Both vie for supremacy and God will be the victor. Hope is the subject of chapter seventeen, hope in a person to be specific. Everyone experiences disappointment, but hope in God does not disappoint (Rom 5:1-5). Evaluation I greatly appreciate what Paul Tripp sought to accomplish with this book. Tripp understands how very common it is for believers to depart from a radical God-centered lifestyle and drift into living for their own little kingdoms. It is a strange irony that humans long for something bigger than themselves, but so easily settle for a shrunken kingdom no bigger than themselves. Tripp does a good job of bringing attention to the myriad of ways we humans so typically search for meaning and fulfillment in serving the interests of our own personal kingdoms. The emphasis on our need for transcendent glory is exactly right. We need to remember that we were created for something bigger than ourselves. The discussion of the origin and nature of sin helps the reader to see how consistent the deceitfulness of sin is to our own day. The lie of sin is that we can worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator and find satisfaction and success in doing so. I greatly appreciated how the book sought to uncover the shallowness of much of contemporary Christian experience. The “costume kingdom” is extremely popular is America today. So much of the therapeutic gospel and felt-needs preaching seems especially aimed at supporting the kingdom of self in the name of God’s kingdom. The “shrink dynamic” is very insightful. It is so typical of human nature to reduce the energy of our life to the narrow world of personal wants, needs, and concerns. One of the highlights for me personally was chapter nine “Welcome to Your Death.” Repeatedly in the Gospels, Jesus called his followers to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow him. This basic call to discipleship seems totally ignored in most preaching and thinking in American Christianity today. This is unfortunate, not only because it is ignoring Jesus’ standard for discipleship, but also because it gets to the heart of what ails us—ourselves! For me to really be delivered from my biggest problem, self, I must die to self. And self will not die easily. I must come back to this call again and again and again. We are so easily and willingly deceived into believing that what brings death will bring life (Prov 14:12). We need to hear Jesus when he says to us “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:24). What seems like a hard call is really a very compassionate call. The cancer of self must be rooted out of our souls so that we can experience life as God intends for us. The only weakness with the book is that though Tripp intended to hold the mirror of the Word of God before the reader, too often the reflection was dim. He did great to use many examples and anecdotes to illustrate the principles and points he made, but more than once I found myself wanting to be convicted, wanting to see where I have fallen prey to the issue he was raising, only to finish the chapter untouched. He tried hard to be specific in application, but his challenges and applications came across as generalities that did not help me to see myself. I will provide one example from the end of chapter eight:
Consider these questions: What kingdom are you actually living for? What is the “good life” that you daily pursue? What hope gets you up in the morning and keeps you going throughout the day? Is Christ the center of your life? If I watched a video of your last month, listening to what you said and why you said it, what would I notice most? If I watched how you made decisions and related to others, noting what you were interested in and fought for, what kingdom would it reveal? If I saw how you dealt with responsibility and invested your free time, and if I saw you in both busy and quiet moments, even hearing your silent conversation with yourself, would I conclude that Christ is the center of your life? Is he really your source, your motive, your goal, and your hope?” (107-08) Tripp is wanting me to examine myself and see where I have to change, but unfortunately my only answer to these questions is, “I think it’s Christ.” I do not claim to hold the solution to this problem. I only mention it as something I noted with disappointment with the book. I understand there is a study guide published separately for this book and my hope is that it does help the reader to personalize the application much more than the book. |
