Philippians 3:7-14 (NIV)
7. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8. 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 9. 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. 10. 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, 11. and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12. 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. 13. 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, 14. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
THOUGHTS:
I love how I can go back to a Bible verse I've read a million times and find new meaning in it based on where I am in my life. As a student near the end of my college years, looking back over everything good and bad within my time at Mason, this verse is currently speaking to me in relation to how the events in our life affect us.
"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." You know, the good things in our life are great to experience at the time, but I know for a fact that the events that really mold us and bring out our character as a human being are the bad times. You find out who you really are when you're in a situation that you can only hand over to God. It's hard to thank God for those hard times.
But everything pales in comparison to the power of God to shine light into our lives and change us. Comparatively, it's all "rubbish," as this translation calls it.
Sometimes, the yearning for God is all that gets us through. Verse 10 reminds me of a favorite line from a beloved book- Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert- that I'll leave you with today.
"I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water."
12. 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. 13. 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, 14. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
THOUGHTS:
I love how I can go back to a Bible verse I've read a million times and find new meaning in it based on where I am in my life. As a student near the end of my college years, looking back over everything good and bad within my time at Mason, this verse is currently speaking to me in relation to how the events in our life affect us.
"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." You know, the good things in our life are great to experience at the time, but I know for a fact that the events that really mold us and bring out our character as a human being are the bad times. You find out who you really are when you're in a situation that you can only hand over to God. It's hard to thank God for those hard times.
But everything pales in comparison to the power of God to shine light into our lives and change us. Comparatively, it's all "rubbish," as this translation calls it.
Sometimes, the yearning for God is all that gets us through. Verse 10 reminds me of a favorite line from a beloved book- Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert- that I'll leave you with today.
"I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water."
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Thoughts by Rachael Dickson, senior history major, happy member of Lutheran Campus Ministry at GMU
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