Things of Earth

I’ll admit: I approached *Things of Earth* skeptical. Piper’s reputation for ‘Christian hedonism’ often gets reduced to a caricature—‘God is most glorified when I’m happiest!’—that ignores the tension of suffering. But this audiobook surprised me. Piper doesn’t just defend pleasure; he *interrogates* it. His chapter on ‘the sorrowful saint’ (yes, even joy has a shadow side) kept me hitting rewind, especially his raw reflection on grief as a ‘severed limb’ of worship. That’s the kind of specificity missing from so many faith-and-culture books. Runnette’s performance is a masterclass in serving the text. He resists the temptation to over-dramatize Piper’s climactic points (a pitfall in religious audiobooks), letting the arguments breathe. His pacing in denser theological sections—like the exegesis of 1 Timothy 4:4—is deliberate, giving listeners time to digest. My one critique? The production occasionally suffers from uneven audio levels when Piper quotes lengthy passages; a slight volume dip would’ve helped. And while Piper’s framework is brilliant, I wished for more *practical* examples of ‘rightly ordered’ enjoyment—how do I *actually* enjoy a vacation without it becoming an idol? Still, this is a rare audiobook that left me both convicted and *lighthearted*—no small feat for a 9-hour theological work.