Let me first say that if you are a Christian this is one of those books that you think you should read but really don’t want to. Let’s face it, most of us do not enjoy being confronted, challenged, and shown that we are wrong. It is much more appealing to our fallen natures to be affirmed and pacified rather than admonished and exhorted. However, for the believer we should be pursuing a life that is centered on the glory and exaltation of God rather than the shameful preservation of self. A Quest for More, by Paul Tripp, is a tool to deflate your pride, recalibrate your life, and increase your love for the God of grace.
The book pivots on a universal problem, we are living for the glory and kingdom of ourselves rather than the transcendent glory and kingdom of God. [Let me just say to all of my dispensationalist friends, he is not talking about the literal physical kingdom but the universal, sovereign reign of God over all things. So, please don’t check out and dismiss this book because of terminology, the blessing far outweighs personal preferences here.]
Tripp writes, “In a fallen world there is a powerful pressure to constrict your life to the shape and size of your life. There is a compelling tendency to forget who you are and what you were made for. There is a tendency to be short-sighted, myopic, and easily distracted. There is a tendency to settle for less when you have been created for more. There is something expansive, glorious, and eternal that is meant to give direction to everything you do. And when you lose sight of it, you have effectively denied your own humanity.”
He goes on to caution against a wrong mindset that this is all about adding more stuff to your list and instead says it is about injecting your list with transcendent purpose: “It is about living for a greater kingdom than the kingdom of my life, my family, and my job. And where do I live for this greater kingdom? In my life, in my family, and in my job! This book was not written to call to you to stop doing everything you have been doing or to start doing a bunch of new things. Rather, it is a call to do what God has called you to do with a vision that is as broad and deep as the glory of God.”
With these marching orders, Tripp sets out dissect the readers’ lives by demonstrating ways that we “shrink our lives to the size of our lives”. He couches the discussion in biblical theology, starting with the fall (which is worth the price of the book), and working through the horrific implications of being self-consumed, pursuing self-righteousness in accordance with self-authority and at the end of the day, claiming self-worship. I was thankful for Tripp’s penetrating analysis into ‘church life’ where, regrettably, small kingdom living too often prevails. His antidotes that open each chapter and fill the book are extremely practical, well-suited, and very understandable. Additionally, Tripp’s fluid, clear, and descriptive writing style make this book a double blessing as he stamps his teaching on various everyday items that you will encounter and think of his lessons (jazz music, gardening, shrink wrap, movies, etc..). I can’t drive down the street, open up my fridge, talk to my kids, serve at the church, or call someone on the phone without wondering what kingdom I am living for…this is real life change, folks, and it is good.
One of the most helpful chapters was “The Shrink Dynamic”, here is a quote that summarizes what he is saying, “Sin Causes fundamental changes in the ‘molecules’ of my heart. No longer is my heart driven by a deep-seated love for God. No longer is my heart motivated by a genuine care for others. No longer do I carry around a sense of responsibility for the surrounding created world. No longer is every decision I make shaped by a clear sense of what is morally right and morally wrong. No longer is everything I do shaped by joyful and thankful worship. The DNA of sin is selfishness, and it shrinks the size of my universe to the size of one. Sin creates the ultimate shrink dynamic. It causes all of us in some way to shrink the size of our lives to the size of our lives. Sin shrinks my motivation, zeal, desire, care, and concern to the contours of my life. In the shrunken kingdom of self, there is no functional room for God or others. It is humbling, but spiritually essential, to admit that sin has shrink-wrapped us all.” (emphasis mine)
Tripp’s answer to this problem is to live a “Jesus Focused Life”. This life is filled with a hatred of sin, a desire to forgive, and a jealously fervent pursuit of the glory of God. In the last chapter Tripp includes a most helpful characterization of what this type of living looks like. This chapter is a fitting capstone to his work throughout the book.
In many ways this book is what The Purpose Driven Life should have been. It is radically God-centered and man-humbling. In A Quest for More, Tripp serves Christians well in his examination of the biblical x-rays and the explanation of the proper path of big kingdom living. I am not going to act like this book doesn’t hurt, it does. I have found myself talking to myself quite a bit, but it is this type of biblically informed post-game analysis that helps me to audible when I am in the moment and live for the right purpose and King (I can’t help it, this is Super Bowl week).
This book has jumped into the top 10 for me personally that I will return to regularly. I cannot commend it to you enough. Your copy of A Quest for More (along with a video by Tripp) is available and on sale at Westminster Books.