September 4 - Philippians 3: Taking out the Trash

My grandparents recently moved from their home into an assisted living center. They had a very comfortable, fairly large home on a nice acre of land - nicely furnished and lots of collectibles from my grandma's years as a buyer for Hallmark. In the end, an auctioneer said it would cost more to have an estate sale than the contents were worth. Other than the few valuables and sentimental items that relatives took, the rest was boxed up and given away. Much of it ended up at Goodwill or in the trash.

As saddening as this is - to watch the place of many memories and much loving labor dissipate - it is, at the same time, an appropriate and pointed example of Paul's words,

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for...  everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash... (2:7-9)

My credentials? My education, my husband and children, my home, my abilities to organize, lead, write, analyze, create. My ministry experiences, the books I've read, courses I've taken, people and organizations I've served and supported. Like my grandparents' lifetime of accumulated belongings - collected and maintained - all these things belong at the dump. It's a difficult rending at this stage of midlife to face the idea of standing with no props, no letters after my name, nothing to back me up. It must occur and He is continually causing it to occur. Because of Christ (v.8).

Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand ... (3:8)

The rending must take place for there to be "a space within [me] that longs for [Jesus] on His terms" (66LL).

I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself.  (3:10)