Thu 10 Jan 2008
One of the greatest movies of the last few years has to be Memento.It’s one of those stop-what-you’re-doing-and-rent-it-tonite flicks that don’t come around very often. Guy Pierce plays Leonard, a man on a search to find his wife’s rapist/killer. The glitch is that while trying to rescue his wife during the ‘incident’, he suffered a head wound and now has this ‘co
ndition’, as he calls it: he can’t seem to make new memories. Every 15 minutes or so, his current, real-time memory fades and he has to start over. Imagine being in the middle of a conversation and asking, “How long have we been talking?” or “Do I know you?”. His memory, up to the point of the ‘incident’, is perfectly fine. So, in order to keep on the trail of the killer, he musk keep a constant log of sticky notes, polariods, and freaky tattoos, because his current memory keeps fading…
See, there are scriptures that I absolutely love. And I’m not alone. If I asked my circle of buddies to name their top 10 favorite scriptures, they’d probably name many of mine as well. We probably love the same 10-12 verses. And that probably holds true for nonbelievers as well, IMO. For instance, I love reading things like Philippians 4:13. Psalm 23. Joshua 1:9. Romans 8:37-38. Isaiah 40:31. Love ‘em.
But , like Memento, sometimes I read things and it bothers me. it doesn’t encourage me, it discourages me. sometimes, if i’m not careful, it will paralyze me. Case in point: I was reading through Philippians this week and was chewing on the words of Paul in chapter 3.
"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung (gk, skubulon), in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…"
I’ve loved this for a long time. it’s romantic and powerful and idealistic and beautiful. Until i try to lay my life on it. Because what Paul says is, “I’ll pay any price to know Christ more.” Take my health. My family. My wife. My kids. My friends. My job. My ________. And after 20 years of this journey, I’m not anywhere close. Because what Paul doesn’t say is "I count these things as secondary to knowing Christ". He says they are rubbish. Dung. Excrement. Caca. (Do you need another word here?) And that those of us who are mature will go on to think this way as well…
There seems to be this sense of discontenment in Paul’s life. He goes on to say (v.12) ‘not that I’ve already attained this…but i press on.’ He’s passionate about the ‘I want to know him!’ part of this letter.
Yet, as I read it, my response to Paul is, “Dude? Didn’t you get to hear his audible voice? Didn’t you get to go to the ‘third heaven’? I don’t even know what that is… You’re the greatest missionary of Christendom. You wrote 75% of the New Testament. Your worship caused earthquakes in prison. Your handkerchief healed people (Acts 19:12). What do you mean “I want to know him”? I think you know him…”
But when people around here get sick, we ask the church to pray so they will ‘get better’. When Paul ran across the sick, he pointed at them or touched them and said, “Stop that. Get up and walk.” You do understand the difference in power here, yeah? And yet Paul seems to have this holy discontentment that it was all crap (skubulon). That he still wasn’t ‘that guy’ yet who knew Christ and the power therein. He just wasn’t there yet.
How does that make you feel? Do you feel like I do? Maybe you’re farther along in this than I am. I genuinely hope so. Regardless, what has helped you move more towards ‘counting it all as dung’? I’d love your thoughts.
4 Responses to “ Forgetting and Straining, Part One ”
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January 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
In verses 3-6 Paul discusses his excellence according to the law, that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee. It seems to be those things he has counted loss for Christ, the only source of true righteousness, in verse 7. And Paul may know he is not yet perfected — indeed none of us will be fully perfected until the Resurrection of the Dead according to our firstfruit Jesus — yet in verse 17 he explicitly tells them to follow his example and use others who so walk as their pattern. (Hmmm. Sounds suspiciously like recognizing those in the communion of all the saints who can provide example and direction for those of us bringing up the rear.)
I do agree that this (and many other passages) says quite clearly that we must subordinate all to Jesus the liberating king. And all things which stand in our way doing so are dung. But I’m not convinced that’s the same thing as saying all things are dung. In fact, as Paul himself writes elsewhere, many of them are good. We are the eikons of the living God. And to the extent we become people being restored and fulfilling our role reflecting the one whose image we bear into creation, I hear God saying not just good, but very good.
But it does all begin by learning to subordinating everything to Jesus of Nazareth. And that’s a lifelong pursuit and discipline. I would say I’ve barely scratched the surface.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
maybe I’m misunderstanding your comments. IMO, there could be a significant difference between ’subordinating’ things to Christ and relegating them to skubulon…
And, I’m thinking of things we typically see as ‘achievements’, as you and Paul both mention–learning, pedigree, seminary, status, etc.
Subordinating things to Christ would seem to make all those things ’secondary’ to Him, at least in my mind. Paul seems pretty adamant that they are not secondary, but excrement. I’m not sure what would be ’secondary’ but not ‘excrement’, outside of knowing Christ…can you give me some examples?
January 11th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
So, I’m processing this as I’m writing. IMO, those things family, kids, life itself are to the believer gifts from God. Truly blessings that God has given as we strive to know him and follow him. Those things we attain under our own power, or those accolades like Paul’s that we hung our hats on before Christ are now like dung, sawdust, empty and useless in His greater scheme of things.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I think millersus captured that aspect of my thought. The things which were crap to Paul in the context of the passage we’re discussing were those things by which he thought he was established as a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, one of the tsadiqim.
In the broader picture, all things need to be subordinated to the one we name Lord. We must deny ourselves as we take up our own cross daily. But we see in verse 9 again that Paul is returning to his accomplishments according to Torah and birth, which he also references in verse 7. Taking verse 8, then, and calling everything crap, including the good gifts of God we are told elsewhere to enjoy in their proper place, seems to me to be taking it too far.
Of course, as we fail to subordinate that which we have to Jesus, as we think we have achieved it for ourselves, it becomes crap. This is, I think, one of the ever-present dangers for the rich. Wealth allows us to manage and control our choices and their consequences. It’s a tool by which we mask reality.