Asking questions about God requires little. Finding the answers requires effort. Living with those answers requires grace.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Resume of Rubbish

It seems my American upbringing has tainted my idea of success. Our culture promotes a go-get-em attitude and positive pragmatism. If something works, it is valuable and if it doesn't work, well it should be abandoned. Unfortunately, our patience to see weather something works or not tends to be short. No doubt our can-do attitude has helped us accomplish much, but so often it tends to be the Achilles heal of my spiritual growth and ministry. When I don't see results quick enough, I wonder if I am using the right methods or if I'm on the right path.


There is a fascinating text in Paul's letter to the Philippians where he recounts his success as a Jew (3:1-11). As far as what was important to first century Hebrew culture, Paul was a success. He was a pureblood Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews and unmatched in zeal as a Pharisee. Our culture measures success in other ways, but Paul would be like the published author, mega-church pastor, or wealthy business man of our day. But Paul says he lost all of this success for the sake of Christ. Would a mega-church pastor say to the congregation, "I must walk away from this position to gain Christ"? Would we walk away from a lucrative business deal to gain Christ? Paul says he did walk away from this success and agenda. In fact, he refers to this success as "rubbish."

Just so we understand the force of Paul's statement, we need to know that our English translation of "rubbish" does not carry the Greek meaning well. According to those who know Koine Greek better than me, if a pastor today were to utter the English equivalent from the pulpit, people would demand that pastor's resignation. Think of a crass word for "dung" and that is what Paul calls all his success!

Paul had a spiritual resume that would have been impressive in his culture, but the problem was he wrote that resume, not God. It is funny how people will discretely slide their spiritual resume across the table sometimes. I have been in conversations with people who are not really involved with church or any kind of discipleship and when they find out I am in ministry, they slip in a comment like, "Well, I taught Sunday School and really loved it when..." or they may say, "I really got a lot out of the small group I was part of," not revealing it had been ten years since they were part of it. We think that success as a Christian is measured by how many years we have been a Christian, taught Sunday School, or people we have helped pray "the prayer." We can list these as accomplishments on our spiritual resume and it makes us feel successful.

On the other hand, since I am not a successful pastor by our culture's standards, I can let my skewed understanding of suffering do the same thing. One afternoon a couple of years ago, I began inventorying all of the "sacrifices" we had made as a family for ministry and in the middle of it, God brought a convicting thought to mind. What had He sacrificed for me? I immediately thought of the searing pain of His scourged body before the crucifixion. The throbbing pain of the nails in His hands and feet. The suffocating weight of His own body as He hung on that tree. Worst of all, the hellish separation He experienced as He died on that cross for me...and you. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf.

This thought was convicting and like a punch to the gut revealing the pride and self righteousness that was sneaking in to the back door of my heart and mind. But it was liberating as well. For I realized that I was defining myself according to the circumstances of my life and not according to who I was in Christ. Because I trust Christ as my Lord, I am a child of God; an heir to His kingdom! I no longer have to allow my sufferings or my successes define me. In fact, my life choices can be made in greater freedom when they are made in the knowledge of who I truly am. We often think church, home, family, and work are competing for our time and resources. Bible study is just one more thing. Tithing is one more bill. Church is one more social event. We think a 10% tithe is sacrificial living, but Christ did not carry only 10% of the cross. He did not die for 50% of my sin. He did not experience only 90% of the wrath we deserve for our sin. He died for all of my sin and redeemed all of me. How dare me give Him only a portion when He has redeemed it all!

Amazingly, Paul's first spiritual resume was full of rubbish. So, God threw it away on the road to Damascus. Paul said he lost all of this. He said he strived to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and share His sufferings in order to be like Him in His death, thus attaining His resurrection. Paul admits that he had not obtain this yet or was by any means perfect, but he strives to make it his own, because Christ had made him His own (Phil 3:10-12). Christ did not make Paul His own because of Paul's Hebrew-of-Hebrews resume. Paul was Christ's own because of the grace and love of Christ, same as it is for any of us who belong to Him. Paul's life was then lived in response to that grace and love, not to earn it for it cannot be earned. Then God began writing a new spiritual resume for Paul and one Paul could never had imagined or wrote himself. He would have never guessed that billions of people would read his letters for the next 2,000 years or that the Holy Spirit was working through him to shape our lives in 2011. Paul was successful, but it was success God designed and desired. That success was born out of Paul sharing in Christ's sufferings and becoming like Him in His death.

Are we ready to be successful, as in God's kind of successful? Are we ready to wad up our spiritual resume and let God write a new one, the right one, for us?

No comments:

Post a Comment