Once was gain...

I really enjoy our chapel services each day at Seminary. I wish I could go more often, but many times I have to be at work at 11:30, so I miss out. When I get a chance I try to catch the chapel services on the website.

Today, our dean of chapel preached on Philippians 3. "Whatever was gain to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." These words penetrated me today. I've often lived my life for gain. In the past, maybe it was material gain: the trophies that are collecting dust in the storage shed, the number of signatures in my high school yearbook...whatever. Today, I have new forms of gain that I want in my life. Things that I think would be an advancement for my life would include marriage, family, a great job in the ministry with visibility and impact, being liked and appreciated by others. So much of that is personal, selfish gain. I want to be noticed and though at this time material things are not so much of a temptation (because I have no money to buy them), there are still other things which make me think that my life would somehow be better if I had them.

But Paul says "everything that was a gain to me I have considered to be a loss because of Christ..." In verse 10 he goes on to say "My goal is to now Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings..." I almost didn't write that last part because suffering scares me. I desire to know Christ. In every class that I take, I want to learn more about Him. I pray that this desire to know Him might outweigh everything else that I think of as gain. Yes, I still desire these other things that I want. I am far from Paul's example, and I'm even further from Jesus'. But I want to know Christ. I pray that that will be sufficient.