A Life
Shaped and Re-shaped by Prayer
Wednesday, Week 3 - Philippians
3:10-11: Resisting Avoidance
I want to know
Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his
death, if somehow I may attain
the resurrection from the dead.
Death and resurrection are not just what happen at the
end of this earthly life, death and resurrection is the pattern to all of
life. A child leaves the comforts of
home for the first day of preschool; a way of life with one parent most always
there is ending. The child may cry, in
part due to the sense of what is being lost, and in part because of the fear of
this unknown new way of living. The
pattern continues with each major life change.
Some move to a new part of the country leaving important relationships
behind with the hope of making new ones.
Some get married and must die to a degree of independence in order to
assume a new life of interdependence.
You may take a new job, speak up for injustice, publically admit your dependency
at a 12-step meeting, get divorced, become disabled, etc. and life changes
irrevocably. Death (the ending of one
whole way of life) and resurrection (the receiving a new life) is the pattern.
There is good news and bad news about this pattern. The good news is that new life is
promised! Christ is risen and he goes
before us, he is there waiting for us in each new school, each new home, each
new relationship, each new job, each new way of being. Christ is risen; he goes before us and he has
power! He has the power to surprise us
with people, resources, opportunities, inner strength, signs of his love, and
as yet undiscovered talents – all of which we had never imagined before and that we receive
as a pure gift.
There is some bad news however, for this promise of new life
comes at cost. First it costs us a
degree of comfort, for dying to an old way of life can be painful. Then too it costs us control, for we cannot
see, feel, or know what the new life will be like until we die to the old, and
there is no going back. “My job is
crushing me,” someone reports, “I want to quit but don’t know how I would
survive if I did.” How much suffering
would this person endure if she quit?
Would she find meaningful work?
Would God surprise her with blessed opportunities, or would the weight
of the world crush her? They only way to
know what the new life would look like is to die to the old.
Many people simply are too scared to end one way of life regardless of how unhealthy, even though they are already suffering, because
they cannot yet see what the new way of life looks like. Paul understands that death and resurrection
are the pattern to new life in Christ; and the way in which we most powerfully
experience Christ and the power of his resurrection is by, again and again,
dying to an old way of life. As you
engage the world today at school or work, on public streets or in the
confines of your home, prayerfully live with this question, “What in me needs
to die today?”
Lord Christ, we too wish to experience you alive and
among us. Give us the insight to know
what we need to let go, or take on, in order to live more fully. Then give us the
power to act, trusting that you will provide. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment