A Life Worthy

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.  Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel… (Philippians 4:2-3)

“Blessed are the peacemakers…”

“By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another…”

“Hey!  Knock it off!  Cut the bickering, you pathetic lumps of flesh…”

Can you guess which of the above was not scripture?

Look, we all have disagreements from time to time.  Often those disagreements will be with brothers and sisters in Christ.  That just confirms our personhood, and reminds us of the fact that sometimes people are annoying.

Even you.

No offense.

Here’s the problem.  Folks are watching.  

Even non-believers.

No…especially non-believers.  

They’re looking to see how you handle interpersonal emotional yuck.  You see, even if they don’t believe, they’re still curious to see whether you live up to this love stuff we spout.

So…live up to it.  

What about it, Beloved?  Do you have someone with whom you need to make amends today?  Is there a quarrel you have the power to end?  Can you make peace in the name of the Lord?

What are you waiting for?

Happy Monday, Beloved.

…but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12).

He saved you for a purpose.

Don’t get me wrong.  He saved you because he loves you.  If you never did a single useful thing after accepting his grace, you would still be Heaven-bound.

But where’s the adventure in that?

The God of the Universe has a job for you.  He has taken hold of you for a reason.  

What reason?

Life.  Abundant, fulfilling, valuable, useful, tremendous life.

Before Christ, you existed.  Your heart beat, the breath came and went, your organs squelched and gushed and performed various internal activities.

But you weren’t alive.

Then Jesus took hold of you.  You died, and you rose.

And you live.  For him.

What will living for him look like today?  I have no idea–that’s between you and your Lord.  Some of you will live for him today by swinging a hammer, teaching a child, closing a deal, mopping a floor, driving a car, writing a blog, fighting disease from the inside. You will live for him in a supermarket, or a car dealership, or a theater, or a hospital bed.

But you will live for him.  And that life will matter.  That is why Christ Jesus took hold of you.

Press on, Beloved.

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 of the dead. (Philippians 3:11).

I can’t understand it.

I certainly can’t explain it.

But I know it.

One day we will be…finished.

Complete

Whole

Free

The chains will fall away

and we will rise.

I don’t know when.

I don’t know how.

But I know.

Walk in that knowledge, Beloved of God.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings… (Philippians 3:10).

Frankly, I know very little about sharing in Christ’s sufferings.  Up to this point, my walk with God has been relatively smooth, and my pain has been confined to the internal struggle-with-sin-and-try-to-live-for-God-while-living-in-a-broken-world variety.  I have not suffered for my Lord; I have certainly not suffered like my Lord.

I’m not sure I can say that I want to.  

Sorry…did that disappoint you?

I mean, I want to be a man of God, but the cost…is…sobering.  If the day comes that I’m called upon to share in His sufferings, I hope I’m up to the task.

That’s not to say I don’t know a little bit about the fellowship of suffering.  I have shared tears and pain and death and heartache and loss and I hate it.  I hate death.  I hate pain.  I hate loss.  I hate the powerless feeling that comes with sitting at the bedside of a dear friend and watching him struggle with the knowledge that his body doesn’t work right and might never work right again.  I hate asking how he’s feeling after having his veins scorched with chemo and his cells fried with radiation.

And yet (Thank God, there’s an “And yet”)

And yet…I have never been closer to my friend than I have been these last weeks.  I have never seen him stronger, or more vulnerable, or more real.

I have never seen him reflect Christ more clearly than he does right now.

What about you, Beloved?  Have you known the fellowship of suffering? IF you haven’t, you will.  I’m sorry for you.

And glad.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.