I walked in the sunshine with a scholar who had effectively forfeited his prospects of academic advancement by clashing with church dignitaries over the gospel of grace. "But it doesn't matter," he said at length, "for I've known God and they haven't...."
Not many of us, I think would ever naturally say that we have known God. The words imply a definiteness and matter-of-factness of experience to which most of us, if we are honest, have to admit that we are still strangers. We claim, perhaps, to have a testimony, and can rattle off our conversion story with the best of them; we say that we know God--this, after all, is what evangelicals are expected to say; but would it occur to us to say, without hesitation, and with reference to particular events in our personal history, that we have known God? I doubt it, for I suspect that with most of us experience of God has never become so vivid as that.
Nor, I think, would many of us ever naturally say that in light of the knowledge of God which we have come to enjoy, past disappointments and present heartbreaks, as the world counts heartbreaks, don't matter. For the plain fact is that to most of us they do matter. We live with them as our "crosses" (so we call them). Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on them, which we frequently do. The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried-up stoicism, miles removed from the "joy unspeakable and full of glory" which Peter took for granted that his readers were displaying (1 Pet 1:8 KJV). "Poor souls," our friends say of us, "how they've suffered." And that is just what we feel about ourselves!
But these private mock heroics have no place at all in the minds of those who really know God. They never brood on might-have-beens; they never think of the things they have missed, only of what they have gained.
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ," wrote Paul. "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 and be found in him.... I want to know Christ" (Phil 3:7-10). When Paul says he counts the things he lost rubbish, or dung (KJV), he means not merely that he does not think of them as having any value, but also that he does not live with them constantly in his mind: what normal person spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure? Yet this, in effect, is what many of us do. It shows how little we have in the way of true knowledge of God.
The third paragraph is certainly me. Is it you?
3 comments:
Thanks for your post, Brooke (besides being excellent in content it gives me one more day to meet my goal to submit at least one post this week!) I, for one, can relate to you.
Your post makes me think of TW's message. Last week I asked a few people for prayer for something which I knew had the potential for creating self-pity in my mind and heart. Despite God's multiplied mercies to me in recent days, I still fall into this sin so easily. But God, in His Grace, was kind to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit to minister to me and gave me much victory. I think, though, my next step in "pursuing maturity in Christ" in this area is to take TW's advice (which is drawn from scripture) and seek out someone who demonstrates joy in Christ despite hardships. I want to learn from someone more mature than me in this area of my life, and thereby, know God better.
Thanks Brooke, It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to my heart about this issue.
Wow...loved your blog...especially good topic for me right now.
As I was reading through Matthew last month--and revisiting Christ's experience leading up to the cross...I made a note to myself that I have gone back to every couple of days, or so (shows how often I am in need of focusing on the importance of Christ rather than my own little world)...
"When I have feelings of despair, anger, disgust, hopelessness (and various other garbage reactions to the negative things in life)--It's time to look at Jesus--focus on the most important thing that ever happened...to get the right perspective. Get lost in the story of the cross...fill your mind with it so there is no room for anything else... and rest there. When the God of the universe is being betrayed, mocked, tortured and led to his death--where He will bear unspeakable pain...unjustly...Should you stop and focus on how you scraped your leg and that it really hurts??!
Instead, live a life full of the story of Jesus and praise God like the infants and nursing babies
Matt. 21:26"
The more I focus on God, the less room there is for me to wallow..or even care about my "earthly woes."
Thanks for the wisdom Brooke--more to add to my arsenal of truth.
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