What is a wasted life?

Consider the following scenarios:
A:Joash was born in the 1970s. His parents were keen at educating him, he went to the best schools his parents could afford. However while in there, he fell into bad company and started doing drugs. He wasn’t able to finish school ,as he was in and out of rehab. He never got any employment because of his addiction to alcohol, as he was never “sober enough” to do any work. He never married and he died at age 45 of alcohol intoxication.
B: James was born in the year 1927. His parents were keen at educating him too, he attended school, up to the university level. After earning his degree, he didn’t proceed to look for a job, because wanted to be a missionary. So he went to South America to do missionary work in 1952 and was martyred in 1956. He died at age 29.
C: Tim was born in the year 1967. His parents took him to school at an early age. He was keen at his studies in school and joined Harvard School of law at age 18.He graduated with an honours,and got a job with a law firm immediately after his graduation. In the years that followed, he saved as much as he could, and opened his law firm, married a beautiful lawyer, who helped in running their firm. They also had huge shares in the oil industry. They were blessed with three kids who got the best of everything in life , made possible by their parent’s financial stability. Tim however was involved in a fatal road traffic accident on his way from work one day , and died of severe brain trauma at age 51.
Who among these , can you say lived their lives to fullest ?
Until April this year, my version of a life not wasted was scenario C. Reason being, that guy was able to achieve everything people chase after( good education, good job, beautiful wife, good money, and children. )
In scenario B, I considered that life as wasted. Reason being, ” how just does one struggle to get educated all the way from kindergarten to university, and then decide to spend their lives in some remote place , living in poverty. ?And not only that, endanger their lives too?”
Scenario A is a wasted life. That goes without saying.
Those were my perceptions of a life wasted and a life well lived, until I came across a book “don’t waste your life ” by John Piper. It has a completely different idea of what a wasted life looks like. This means that, it is very possible for someone to live a life in scenario C, and still be considered like a person in scenario A,to have wasted their lives.
What exactly is a wasted life?
In order to truly answer that question, we have to see it through biblical lens and not through our eyes. This is because, in the world we live in currently, we the children of God, are surrounded by too much noise, that it is almost impossible to distinguish between God’s voice and other voices. There’s just too much secularism and on our own, we can hardly tell between good and evil, because they have been tampered with. Evil no longer looks as offensive as it should be, and given some time, they cease being evil and become “good”.
The world has given us it’s version of a life well lived; the ability to make “good money”. As in ,tons of money. This translates to a posh house, flashy cars, holidays to exclusive destinations, designer clothes, and all manner of things the world terms as “good”. Money is the “chief idol” and most people will seek to find it at all costs. No wonder it is still unintelligible, why someone would leave a good career to go to do something like missionary work. That is committing “career suicide “.
But what does a life well lived means through biblical lens?
Psalms 100:3 : know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us,and we are his,we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
The Bible tells us that we are not our own, we belong to God. He made us, and for a reason .That means, if we miss to live to that reason, then we live wasted lives.

Why did God make us?
1) So that we may glorify him.
God made us for his glory, Isaiah 43:6-7, and we are supposed to glorify him in everything we do.(1st Corinthians 10:31). A life therefore that doesn’t glorify God , however much good or “dreamy “ it may look like, it is still a WASTED life.
2) That we may live with him.
John 14:2-3,My Father’s house has many rooms, if that were not so, would I have told you that I’m going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. God has plans for us to go live with him . He has promised to come to take us home. However, it is not everyone who gets to live with God. Revelation 21:27 says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.“

We are all sinners. We don’t qualify to go to heaven on our own merit, and God knows that. That’s why he sent Jesus to come live the life we were meant to live but couldn’t, and to die for all the sins we’ve ever committed and that we will ever commit, that through Jesus, whoever believes in him, may not perish, but have eternal life (get to live with him in heaven).
The knowledge of knowing that Jesus died for us, is however not enough. God needs to conform us into the image of his son daily. We still need to work out our salvation, as we assist God in our sanctification journey. The person who does that ,achieves what it is called, “a life lived fully”.
3) That we may know Him
God created us that we may get to know him through a loving and a trusting relationship with him. He has also given us the means to achieving that; through his written word (The Bible), through Prayers, and through Fellowship( the people he has granted us to point us to him).
A wasted life therefore, is a life lived with no intention of wanting to know God.
4) So that we can love him and love others.
God created us that we may love him. This we do by obeying his commands. John 14:23-24,Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching……Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. And we don’t love him because of the good things he’s done in our lives, but because of who he is , and that it is our responsibility to love him.
We are supposed to show our love to others, not because they are lovable or they deserve it,but because we love them with the great love God loved us( John 3:16) . One of the ways we show love to others is by taking the gospel to them. By the way, that person in scenario B, is James (Jim) Elliot. He ,together with four other other friends ,were speared to death on 8th January 1956, by the Indian tribe they were trying to reach to. That now, is the best description of a life well lived. This however does not mean ,that only those in ministry are the ones living their lives to the fullest. One can be a teacher or a banker or a doctor and glorify God in their professions. That way ,they will be living their lives to the fullest.
The greatest commandment is love…we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts,with all our souls , with all our strength, and with all our minds. And to love our neighbors as ourselves.( Luke 10:27).
Anyone who does that, knows what it means to live “a life well lived “.
What next?
Over the past few months I’ve had to unlearn a lot of things in my life. One of them being, “my version of a wasted life “. Before God in his mercies pressed the “restore factory settings” button in my life, the one thing I used to seek was money. Not money in general, money in particular. It was what defined my life. But thanks to God’s grace, I no longer seek the things I used to.
Why am I telling you my testimony? Because I want you to know ,I’ve been there. The world has it’s way of defining success ,which is way different from how God defines it. So if you’ve fallen into it’s lies, it’s never too late to unlearn stuff. Just go to God, and he’ll change everything in your life. And very soon, you’ll no longer desire what the world has to give.