Lately I’ve been bouncing back and forth between two books. Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality by Nancy Pearcey, and Carl R. Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution. Both authors excel at describing how today’s Western Christians simply do not think of themselves with the same worldview as the New Testament followers of Jesus.
As we step into frigid 2024, shivering with the windchill of an arctic descent, I am prodding all of us to consider our own expectations for God’s work within us and through us.
Last week I ended with Paul’s words about contentment. He was certainly not a 21st century Christian! In blindingly stark contrast with Western culture, he spoke of being “content” with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ . . . .” That’s not our usual use of the word content! Today’s common theme song is, “I just wanna be happy.” That chorus rings in the streets and all too often in the average church sanctuary.
Paul was content with hardship. But did he ever experience discontent? Yes, there were some areas where he was pressing into God for more and more.
Toward the end of his life, he wrote a letter from prison to Philippian believers. Most of us remember that epistle for a dominant theme of joy. Despite his dire circumstances and the possibility of facing execution, he seemed to be bubbling over. However, there was deep discontent as well:
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me.13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-14 NRSV)
Paul wanted more. He was content with weakness, insults, persecutions—even internet cancelation! But he absolutely simply wanted more. And he was pressing toward that prize.
How did he seek more? By becoming like Jesus in his death (v. 10). What did he mean by that?
In the second chapter, he provided an epic picture of Christ’s descent toward death—a description with creedal weight which inspires knee-bending worship. Jesus emptied himself of the glories and privileges of heaven, and with the posture of a servant he took on human flesh, and obeyed the will of the Father, even to the point of death on a cross.
That was Paul’s path toward more. More intimacy with Jesus. More experience of God’s power. More suffering on behalf of the Kingdom. More.
That’s what I want for 2024. How about you?
When running the mile (or 1600) as a teen, the most important lap for me was the third. With two laps down and knowing I would need to pour it all on in the fourth, that crazy third lap was the perfect time to become distracted. To allow my mind to wander. To some degree, even to not worry about the others in the race. Because of the temptation to coast, that was the lap that truly mattered if one wanted the prize. I knew I could “gut it out” on the final lap. But the third lap would be important for positioning myself well for the final kick.
For North American Christians, it is so easy to stay stuck in a distracted “third lap” mindset—content with our level of intimacy with Christ; content with what progress we see in our care receivers, content to avoid the hardships of discipleship and service. But pressing on toward the prize doesn’t begin in the final lap of the race.
As for surfing the Sexual Tsunami, we can also become too easily content with meager results among those seeking our help.
Our path to more is the same one that Paul found in the example of Jesus. Emptying ourselves of those perks and pleasures we feel we’ve earned, posturing ourselves as God’s servants in ministry, obeying Jesus no matter what the cost . . . even death—certainly dying to ourselves, but physical death if God so wills it.
The Gun Lap
As the first runner finishes the third lap, the man with the starter pistol pulls the trigger. Everyone on the field knows that the leader is on the final lap.
At that sound, something happens in the gut of every runner on the track. They refocus and compete.
Today I heard the story of someone in our community who gave his testimony during the chapel service of a nearby Christian College. Before the gathered student body, he poured out his heart. His son came under investigation by the state police for some form of pornography. Upon hearing of this, the wife and daughter fled the home. Eventually this much loved son committed suicide.
As he choked out those words, he confessed his own struggles with porn, urging all those with a porn problem to come out of hiding and seek help.
Stories like that serve as a gun shot for me. The mental fog clears, alerting me to the race in which we run. It reminds me of the reason God is calling together an army of Tsunami Surfers. It whets my appetite to finish well.
Let this story serve as a reminder for you as well!
Desperation preceded miracles in the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. May we have a godly desperation for more. And by his grace, may we see the power of the resurrection much at work in the lives of Tsunami victims.
Is God calling you to press into him for more and more? What are the greatest distractions for you? Share with us what you sense God is doing.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
I agree that desperation precedes miracles. I've noticed that same thing. There is nothing like unadulterated pain to snap a person awake. God comes in close to the brokenhearted. You and I know that well.