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A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You

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There are few writers whose star seems to rise and rise as they turn out book after book. Paul David Tripp is one of those writers. Tripp has been positively prolific in the last few years, with three books either authored or co-authored in 2006 and 2007 alone. Every Paul Tripp book has become an instant classic in Reformed biblical counseling circles, and each release is anticipated more than the last. Tripp is not only a prolific writer, but a prolific worker. The various hats he wears include faculty member for both the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian's Center City initiative in the same city, and sought-after conference speaker under the banner of Paul Tripp Ministries. And this list only takes account of current activities; in the past he co-founded a church and a Christian school, as well as conducting a thriving, decades-long biblical counseling ministry. Did I mention he is a gifted, prolific writer? A Quest for More is his latest effort, and while it lives up to its expectations, it is bound to raise some eyebrows along the way. It is rife with quotable words and phrases, not to mention life-altering, paradigm-shifting observations. The challenge is therefore to select representative parts of the book for comment, and to let the actual book do the rest of the work.

Tripp is spot on when he says the book defies categorization. Some reviewers may be tempted to allocate this book to the purpose-driven category, and it is, in the best sense of the word. But "it is not enough to determine to have purpose," says Tripp. Not simply a book of practical principles founded upon truth propositions, it bares Paul Tripp's heart for authentic kingdom living. He labors long and hard to mark out the borderline between the `big sky kingdom' of God and the personal, destructive, little kingdoms we build to rival the big kingdom, intentionally or not. Astute biblical counselor that he is, Tripp says no-man's land doesn't exist between the two kingdoms. You are either living for God or for yourself. Frighteningly, you can think you are living for God when you are in fact living for self. Throughout the book Tripp unpacks many practical (`functional,' in Tripp's terminology) ways in which we live for one kingdom or the other. After setting up the controlling idea of big kingdom (God) versus little kingdom (self), he weaves in analogies of civilization, costume, shrink wrap (believe it or not), jazz, and romance, just to name a few. It takes a gifted communicator to translate these concepts into productive illustrations, but Tripp accomplishes what he has set out to do in every instance. The chapter colorfully entitled `The Costume Kingdom' is the highpoint of the book, in which Tripp relentlessly exposes ways and means Christians use to conduct little kingdom business under the guise of big kingdom living. This scrutiny of this chapter leaves no place to hide, setting the tone for the rest of the book, exhorting the reader to expansive, tireless big kingdom living.

Nevertheless, some eyebrows will be raised in the course of reading this book. Two chapters in particular will appeal to quite diverse audiences. The chapter that will resonate most with one segment of readers will likely discomfort another segment of readers, and vice versa. The two chapters in question are those entitled `Loneliness' and `Anger.' The former revolves around a metaphor of romance depicting certain aspects of our relationship with God, with whom "we are meant to be madly in love." Such an approach is ever so slightly Eldredge-esque and will aggravate the crowd that rails against Jesus-is-my-boyfriend worship music, but in all fairness only this one chapter hinges on the concept of the sacred romance. But equally disturbing to the crowd that loves Jesus-is-my-boyfriend music will be a later chapter describing the narrative of Scripture as a perpetual battle between two types of anger: the holy, righteous anger of the big-kingdom-building God and the unholy, unrighteous anger of humanity intent on building its individual little kingdoms of one. Tripp notifies us that we are not to live devoid of anger altogether; rather, we are to properly practice anger in line with God's passions and purposes: "You see, if you are living for the big kingdom you will be angry [along] with God, rather than at God." Fortunately for both segments of Tripp's readership, the book rounds out with a picture of our future hope, that of eternity with Christ, and an epilogue portraying a young man named Zach who possesses an imitable propensity for kingdom living.

Since one of the side benefits of reading is scanning footnotes, endnotes and bibliographies for further reading, it bears mentioning that Tripp does not quote from conventional sources. Apart from Scripture, Indian theologian Vinoth Ramachandra features most heavily early on in the book, and Blue Like Jazz author Donald Miller's influence is felt later, although responsibly mediated by Tripp.

And so we come to the question of who should read this book. At the beginning of one chapter Tripp tells a story about a retreat during which he spoke about faith. He asked for a definition of faith, which someone defined as believing, which in turn someone defined as trusting, which in turn someone defined as having faith. Tripp uses this story to underscore his concern that "we Christians tend to talk in a coded, quasi-biblical language that can cloud understanding as much as benefit it." Tripp is not advocating a wholesale data dump of theological language but is appealing for a discerning sensitivity between helpful and unhelpful language when speaking about the things of God. Happily, Tripp applied this concern when composing the book, so we are left with a book that will greatly aid new believers as well as challenge lifelong believers. Readers both new to Christ and mature in Christ are invited to add their own names to the list in Chapter 7 of those biblical figures who unwittingly shrunk their lives to a fraction of God's transcendent glory. The application of this exercise is universal: we are all guilty of shrinking our lives to the size of our wants, desires, and perceived needs.

Reading the Paul Tripp corpus in chronological sequence is an exercise in continuity. Thought processes that were only seminal or hinted at in earlier books are regularly brought to full fruition in successive books. Therefore, while I would heartily recommend this book to begin your journey with Dr. Tripp, I would equally recommend any other Paul Tripp book. I am certain A Quest for More will leave you wanting more - of Paul Tripp's writing, of big kingdom living, and most importantly, of Christ its king.

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."

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.

This book is well laid out in bite size chapters. I have found it to be challenging to my comfortable,complacent christianity. That said, it is not another "get busy for christ" book. If it was, I would have thrown it in the trash. Instead, I would describe it as a book that invites you to know and love God and to be part of his larger purposes out of your love for Him. This is an amazingly inspirational book, you'll be glad you took the time to read it.

The best personal discipleship book I've read in five years. With some of Tripp's better know titles out there I think this one may have gotten missed. We were made for transcendence (to experience God's glory) and anything we allow to take the place of it (even good things) causes us to shrink our lives to something less than the more that we all quest for. I highly recommend this book and will put it on my yearly read list.

My small Bible group used this book. We ended up not liking it very much. I'm actually a little shocked at all the incredibly enthralled reviewers.

First, the positives - it definitely points out your sin in a completely new way. It shows you just how pervasive your sin is. Sins are not events in your day - they are mindsets. That was very compelling and challenging, and I appreciate that.

That said, this book is incredibly repetitive. This lesson could have been distilled into a pamphlet. At some point in the weeks studying this, we started rolling our eyes and saying, "Didn't we talk about this last week? And the week before?"

Finally, I think that some of the metaphors in the book are jumped into without a clear reading of Scripture. For example, I take extreme issue with another minor point of the book - that we, as Christians, "should" groan because of the sin in the world. This is, of course, taken from Romans 8, which says that we "do" groan. I felt that the emphasis on "should" takes away the joy of God - not only that, but in the (I think) last chapter, the "ideal" Christian presented obviously isn't groaning - he is joyful in his desire to help the world. The fact that God says we "do" groan does not mean we should; it means what it says, that we do groan. Sin causes disappointment and yearning for a greater kingdom. It's a description, not an instruction. At times it felt like Tripp wanted us all to go into major depression, though I'm sure that wasn't what he wanted us to get out of it. The point is that we should care about the world, but I hate the fact that he misquoted Scripture in order to make that point. That point could have been made with different language.

Overall, this is a challenging book, but too long, repetitive, and IMHO, not very thoroughly thought out in its metaphor.

This is a great book. Easy and fast to read. We are using it as a small group study. I highly recommend it.

Good book for searching where your head really is...and where your heart is for Christ. Paul Tripp's insight is interesting and he presents many good points. He does, however, tend to over explain and exceed examples from time to time but what he describes and discusses is great. I highly recommend this book for those wanting to glorify God.

Paul Tripp and his colleagues over at CCEF have done more to help me than I can express. Not only have these resources been a tremendous encouragement to me and my wife on a devotional level, and not only have they been massively influential in my counseling, but they have had an unexpected and perhaps even unintended impact. I have often said that nothing has impacted my preaching more than the writings of Tripp, Powlison, and Lane. They apply the Scriptures so well and their books like: "A Quest for More" give clear, Biblical, help for living in a fallen world. I cannot imagine my life without their writings.

In this book, Paul Tripp does an excellent job of examining the human condition and where we fall short before God's intended meaning for our lives. Too often we think that we are living for God when it is just a front for the "kingdom of self" (as Tripp puts it). I have used this book numerous times in counseling/discipleship, taught through it in a college-age small group, and I am currently using it for a small group study with high school boys. This is an excellent tool to have for evaluating your own walk with Christ and in discipling others.

Somewhere in the world at the moment you read this, a little boy, waving a stick, has just destroyed myriads of imaginary enemies, and having clambered up to the top of a pile of dirt stands stretching out his arms in victory, proclaiming himself to be "The King of the World." Mountain climbers face dizzying heights and sports fans cheer for their teams for the same reason. According to Paul David Tripp, in his book A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You, "There is woven inside each of us a desire for something more - a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-by-day existence." Tripp labels that "something" transcendence. We are hardwired for glory; it is something that God built into us when He created us to be unique and higher than anything else in the garden of Eden. God put these desires in us for a purpose: to seek His transcendent glory. As Tripp states, "If your purpose isn't tied to [God's] glory, you have . . . denied your humanity."

The problem in our lives is that sin is deceptive. Like a used car salesman, Satan constantly tricks us into believing that less is more, just as he did Eve in the garden. He offered to Adam and Eve an independent glory, deceiving them into believing that "the true transcendence is autonomy." We must combat this thinking by realizing the far-reaching effects of sin in our lives, but also accepting the far-reaching application of God's grace. Grace does not bring just personal benefits to us. It reshapes our lives and extends the boundaries of our interests. "Redemption's agenda is not to make our little kingdoms successful but to welcome us to a much bigger, much better kingdom."

Tripp refers to Matthew 6 to warn of two threats to a proper focus on the "big kingdom." These are earth-bound treasures and anxiety-bound needs. Pursuing "little-kingdom living" is characterized by these emphases, and it will always shrink your life to the size of daily wants and worries. It takes constant warfare to keep from falling into these traps, especially because of the deceptiveness of our own hearts. Too often we mask the kingdom of self in the costume of the kingdom of God, and we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are "seeking first the kingdom of God.

In spite of all of these challenges, Trip encourages us, "Wait, there is a Warrior!" He points us to the cross, through which Christ won victory over the little kingdom, paid the debt for selfish desires, and purchased power for us to obey. Turning to Colossians 1: 3-23 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, we are reminded that Christ and the cross are central to the kingdom of God. And Christ calls on us to emulate His death by denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him. Tripp comments, "The little kingdom offers us life, but brings you death; the big kingdom requires your death, but gives you life."

The following chapters (11-17) call Christians to having this lifestyle-shaping heart attitude. It affects all areas of life, but Tripp focuses on several key areas. In chapter 11, "Groaning," he reminds us that a kingdom-focused life will carry with it a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the status quo. Thankfulness is good, but there is danger in being too easily satisfied. Chapter 12, "Jazz," compares the Christian life to improvised music following two principles: form and freedom. The "form" or musical key and time signature, is compared to God's word: the guidelines for kingdom life. However there is freedom built into kingdom living as well. According to Tripp, "The Bible simply doesn't address every situation or relationship in which you may find yourself." This is perhaps poorly stated. God does give us a degree of freedom in pursuing His kingdom, and though the Bible does not give specific instructions for every situation in life, it does address every aspect of life in principle form.

Next, Tripp discusses forgiveness in Chapter 13. He connects our struggle with forgiveness with our kingdom struggle. Seeking or giving forgiveness is impossible without looking past our self-kingdom to the cross of Christ through whom we are forgiven. Similarly, Tripp discusses anger in Chapter 16. We should never be angry in protection of "our kingdom;" only God's.

Chapter 14, "Loneliness," compares our emotional life in the kingdom of God to waiting for the love of one's life to return. His love for us and our responsive love for Him fuels our pursuit of the kingdom. While we wait for our relationship to be perfected, it is easy for our fickle hearts to wander. "Our problem is not that we fail to be satisfied. Our problem is that we are too quickly satisfied." If you are not lonely for Jesus, the central affection of your life, what other lovers have stolen your affection?

Chapter 15 discusses sacrifice. All of us make sacrifices every day, and what we sacrifice for is revealing. Tripp says, "Behind every personal sacrifice is a quest for some kind of treasure." Christ calls on us to give up everything - every treasure but Him must be abandoned.

Finally, Tripp gives us hope for the journey ahead. Everyone is hopeful to some degree, but many people have a "soon-to-be-disappointed" hope because they have attached their hope to something that will fail them. Everything earthly will disappoint in some way, but hope in God's kingdom will never fail you.

That positive, hopeful approach is one of the things readers will most appreciate about A Quest For More. Using many excellent illustrations and analogies, and showing the heart of a biblical counselor, Tripp gently leads our wandering hearts back home. Still, he doesn't promise earthly bliss, but realistically describes loneliness and groaning as our hearts are fixed on things above.

Christians today desperately need to grasp the truth that this book has unpackaged for us. The struggle facing the church today, as in every age, is worldliness, which is in essence living with an earth-bound mindset. If we could but get a glimpse of the glory above our lives would radically change. Paul David Tripp has attempted to exalt Christ's kingdom so that we can see that glimpse of glory. May God open our eyes!