VISION NEW ENGLAND

The Secret of Going the Distance

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)

Why are you here, and what makes you stay?  Back in the old “church growth movement” days (it seems like a thousand years ago now), there was a lot of discussion about discovering the “glue” that holds people to a church i.e., the reasons why people join and remain faithful to a community of faith.  Even today, if you “Google” the phrase“The glue that holds people to church”, you will be served over thirty-five million separate search results in under 0.28 seconds.  Apparently this is still a question which pastors and ministry leaders are asking today.

I would like to turn this question around and aim it back at the Christian leaders who may be reading this.  Why are you here in the community of faith, and what makes you stay?  What is the glue that holds you true to your faith and calling?

At the time the beloved Apostle Paul penned these words to the Philippians (above), he had been in the race a very long time and yet remarkably he showed no sign of wearing or wearing down, quite the contrary.  In fact, even though he was by then an old man he seems rather to be renewed.  One commentator captures the essence of this remarkable resilience:

You might be interested to know that when Paul wrote this he had been a Christian for about 30 years.  And when he says I have not already obtained and I am not already perfect, he is speaking as a man who for three decades had been pursuing the knowledge of Christ and he still wasn't there.  Three decades of the most intense, loyal, dedicated, faithful pursuit of knowing Christ and he still was not spiritually satisfied, but spiritually dissatisfied. He was not perfect. He had not attained the full knowledge of Christ; the pursuit was still on. ¹

Thirty years in the service of Christ, and the man was still in hot pursuit.  These words inspire and convict me for a couple of reasons, the first being this just happens to be exactly how long I have been serving the Lord in ministry, and the second being that in all honesty I have wearied and lost my steam manytimes along the way.  As I ponder the “secret” of Paul’s passion, I am reminded again of what I already know – nothing but love for Jesus can sustain a life of vibrant faith and devotion over the long haul.

How did you get here?  I have asked this question many times in my work with pastors.  We “ministry” people can easily get lost in the work, and in the process lose sight of the reason why we are doing it.  It happens all the time.  When it does, it helps to retrace our steps.  Why are we here, and how did we end up being where we are and doing what we do?  These incredibly important questions hold the key to joyful longevity in the life of faith and for most of us (I hope) the answer is essentially the same; we are here because like Paul, our lives and our plans were interrupted by a personal encounter with Jesus!  It is difficult to describe the effect of that encounter; it transcends description, words fail. Each of us may describe it differently but for every one of us, nothing would ever be the same again.

I find myself deeply stirred whenever I read Augustine’s incredibly poetic description of the life altering impact of God’s grace upon his life.  He so beautifully describes the strange mixture of anguish and exhilaration a sinner feels upon discovering heaven’s great Treasure, which of course is God Himself:

Too late did I love You, O Thou Beauty ever ancient and yet so new! Too late did I love You! 

Behold, You were within, and I searched abroad for You; I was deformed, plunging madly among the beautiful things which you have made. You were with me, but I was not with You.

You  called, and shouted, and finally burst through my deafness. You flashed, You shined, and scattered my blindness. You exhaled vapors, and I inhaled - and now I pant for You! I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst!

You touched me, and now I burn for Your peace! ²

Augustine powerfully captures the exhilaration of redemption, the passion³ of repentance, and the ravishing affection of a soul which has been captured by Perfect Love.

And this is essentially what we hear Paul saying in his own “confession” to the Philippians. The great lion of God ⁴ had experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. He had already endured more pain than most of us ever face in a lifetime and yet his zeal was undimmed; he was out to apprehend the One who had apprehended him so long ago on the road to Damascus and he would not rest, indeed he could not rest until his ransomed heart had achieved its desire.

Paul had dealt with difficult churches, as many of us have. He also endured severe persecution, cruel hostility, withering exhaustion and heart breaking abandonment.  Yet we find no trace of bitterness or self pity in Paul, and he never appears to have breathed a single word about giving up.

What can sustain a person through so much suffering and still leave him with so much hope and energy for finishing the fight?  In spite of what we modern-day “people of action” may be tempted to think, Paul’s primary motivation was not the mission but the Master.  Everything he did came out of a deep, abiding, and very personal love for God.

There is nothing so powerful as Christ incarnate in the life of a leader who knows and loves and cherishes Him above all else.  Nothing else can produce such fruit, and nothing else can ever rival it.  As we head to the finish, God give us the grace to keep our eyes on the One who is the Prize; “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things” (Philippians 3:15, NIV).

1. John MacArthur, Evaluating Your Relationship to Christ

2.  Augustine, Confessions, Book X

3. Passion in the original sense of the Latin word, which means to suffer

4. The Great Lion of God is the title of the book by Taylor Caldwell on the life of Paul