May the mumbling commence!
There are many pulls on our lives. If we are not careful, we find ourselves swamped with activity. Yet, at the end of the day, we feel that nothing has been accomplished. Nothing has been achieved.
Yes, we hold many things dear – but there is only one thing worthy of our greatest attention. If we learn to focus on that one worthy thing, we will find everything else falling into place. Having the proper focus grants us a keen ability to gain a true perspective.
Things that we once thought were so important are revealed to be marginally relevant at best and trivial at worst.
What is that one thing worthy of our greatest attention? That one thing is what Paul wrote about in Philippians chapter three. To know Christ is worthy of our greatest attention. Read the passage below:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Verses 7-14)
Everything else pales in comparison to the greatness of knowing Christ. But, what does it mean to know Christ? Knowing Christ is not a simple matter of having heard of him and believed in him. Knowing Christ is not merely a matter of having table fellowship with Jesus (Luke 13:22ff). Knowing Christ is not merely a matter of doing miracles and good works in Jesus’ name (Mt. 7:21ff).
To know Christ is to have fellowship in Jesus’ sufferings. That doesn’t sound too cheery, does it? Yet, to have fellowship in the sufferings of Christ – the sufferings of obedience to our heavenly Father – is the narrow path to knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection. Death comes before resurrection.
Dying to ourselves is a painful and laborious process. For this reason, Paul encourages us to press on to take toward our goal to be Christ-like. Dying to ourselves is a never-ending journey.
At times, we will wander and stray from the narrow path of obedience to God. But we cannot allow our deviations from God’s plan for our lives totally derail us. That is why Paul tells us to forget what is behind.
We cannot change our past. The steps that we have taken cannot be taken back or retraced. Instead, we must press on toward the goal – total obedience to God’s call on our lives.
Everything else becomes a world of shadows in the revealing light of knowing Christ in this way.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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