7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, 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 on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, 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.
Philippians 3:7-14
My Grandfather’s Old Stuff
My grandfather used to collect old things when he was alive. He had a number of old furniture scattered all over his house. He also had this old coin collection that I really loved, with some pieces going back to the early 1900’s.
Most of his collections were really practical, like old nails and screws. They came in handy when I had carpentry projects in school. He also kept old boxes and plastic bags tucked away all over the house. You never knew when you’d need them. He has this old pig pen at the back of the house that got converted into storage space where he kept all the other stuff he kept. Tin cans, bottles, pieces of wood, GI sheets, steel bars—you name it—my grandfather kept them all there.
But a lot of the things he kept really boggled the mind. He still kept broken appliances that didn’t work anymore. He had expired paint lined-up on a shelf. He even had small pieces of metal stacked in piles on the floor all rusted up. My mom would offer to have them sold at the junk shop but my grandfather would not allow it. Somehow, he could not let go of old things. He wanted them always close by. Even if they weren’t of any use anymore.
We only got the chance to get rid of his old collection when he died many years later. They weren’t worth much anymore. We even had to pay someone to take them all away.
Things to Keep, Things to Throw Away
There are old things in life that are worth keeping. There are things with enduring value that shouldn’t be thrown away. Just like antique hardwood furniture, or jewelry, or even antique Spanish-era décor.
Niko loves narra furniture, and she started to collect them for our home. She inherited a very nice living room set made of narra, made by hand by her grandfather. From then on, we only bought narra pieces to furnish our house. They only grow in value as time passes. These things we keep.
But many things in life lose their value with age. Products of dubious quality lose their utility too soon and quickly turn into clutter. Niko and I received an electric turbo roaster when we got married. We used it only a few times, then it got broken after a few weeks. It still looked nice, and it was such a waste to throw it away, and I was thinking, maybe I can have it repaired somewhere… I really had no idea where. Anyway, it stayed in our kitchen for a few years—as clutter. Niko had the strength of character to throw it away after a while.
Mental Baggage, Heart Clutter
Sometimes it is difficult to decide which of the things we possess are of enduring value, and which ones are clutter, or worse, junk. The same is true with things we keep in our head and in our heart. We collect all sorts of views and perspectives, values and beliefs all through our lives, from the myriad of media and information sources available to us, and in our various interactions with people we love and respect. We keep most of them stored in our hearts and minds without evaluating whether they need to be kept there or not. Without being aware of it, we may have collected so much baggage in our minds that makes it difficult for us to make moral and ethical choices. We may have accumulated so much clutter in our hearts that makes it difficult for us to discern what is most valuable in life.
I used to believe that it is just fine to pursue a career without consulting God. That is the message I got from the various influences closest to me when I was young. My dad always encouraged me to pursue a career in sales because that’s where the money is. My friends in the theater told me I’d be a good artist, just like them. The TV shows and movies I watched and the books I read all told me that I can do anything that I put my mind into. I just needed to believe in myself. I just had to ‘do it!’ And ‘do it’ I did. I decided I wanted to by very rich and famous, and I set out to do everything in my capacity to do just that. Besides, God was supposed to ‘help those who helped themselves,” right?
So when I started sensing that God was calling me to take a different direction, I couldn’t hear Him very clearly. I had the whole world of options before me, all available for the taking. But which one was God’s plan for me, I had no idea. To be honest about it, I wasn’t very interested to find out. My heart was all cluttered up with the things I wanted, I couldn’t discern what He wanted for me.
Worldly Garbage
It was only by the grace of God that I was rescued from my own folly. He had to block my way. He had to unravel my well-laid plans. He allowed me to go through a crises period, when I had to question everything I had accomplished up to that point, and really, truly ask what’s most important in life.
Most people call it the mid-life crisis. I call it God’s gracious wake-up call.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:7-8 that everything he had achieved in life, that most people aspired to reach themselves, he considered ‘garbage.’ They are not unlike the great collection of junk my grandfather amassed in his life. They were all meant to be thrown away.
Achievements in life are not bad per se. They simple are worthless compared to the things the Apostle Paul considered to be of great worth: that is knowing Jesus Christ, gaining Him, and being found in Him.
Gaining Christ
Paul realized all of his achievements in life would all eventually come to naught . If you still haven’t heard about the grim statistics, and whether you believe it or not, 100% of people die. And when people die, they leave behind everything they’ve ever gained on earth. They are all junk in Paul’s eyes. To spend time on them, apart from Christ, is a waste of time—no, a waste of precious life.
How does one gain life, then? Paul tells us, it is only by gaining Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is God’s Word incarnate, God’s expression of Love who became flesh (John 1:14). He came to offer up His life as a sacrifice for sin
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4: 9-10
The highest pursuit in this life, therefore, is knowing and gaining Christ, because through Christ we gain forgiveness of sin, thereby restoring a love-relationship that God desires to develop with us. This happens as we identify ourselves with Christ, and become ‘one’ with Him, united with him in his life and death. And because Christ was resurrected after His death on the cross, so also are we resurrected to a new life after death—life eternal, life that has no more limits, life eternal.
Once we have life in Christ, our entire life can now be lived to the full in the light of our relationship with Christ, all the way to eternal life.
Throwing Away Garbage
Today is the first day of the new year 2011. Some say it’s a time for leaving behind the old and taking on the new. It is time to take stock of life, and think about what’s truly valuable in life, and what needs to be thrown away.
And achievements apart from Christ are not the only things that need to be junked. Old perspectives that put great value on wealth, or fame or pleasure or power above Christ are all worthless. Negative attitudes about life and destructive beliefs about self all need to be thrown away. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, says Paul (2 Corinthians 5:17).
This new year, let us make Christ the greatest treasure in our lives.
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
