A Trashcan

Philippians 3:8
Today's meditation is a hard word from Paul discussing putting our desires and quest to get somewhere in this world behind us for the sake of following Christ. His letter talks about his early days of being a Pharisee and very respected among his people to throwing that all away. Paul writes, "We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. (8) Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:3-9 NLT)." In our day this would be the equivalent of being a celebrity with tons of money and fame and being asked to give it all up and toss it away to seek after Christ. Would you do it? Have you had to make a tough choice like that in your spiritual walk? On a smaller scale, years ago I walked away from a stable, steady paying job to do youth ministry full-time. It was a big risk, moving to a new town, not knowing how I'd be received or even how long I'd last. Then after a few years there my health and ability to do my job fell apart and I found myself unemployed and in poor health with no real clue where to go next. Yet, I wouldn't have gone back and done things differently because I knew in my heart God sent me there and would continue to provide for me wherever he sent me. Understand that Jesus never promised life to be smooth sailing, he said there would be sacrifices, he made the ultimate one, but he did promise to be with us always. Pray that when God sends a challenge your way that you will have courage to count all you've gained in this world as trash and follow after the one who made a sacrifice far greater than any of us will ever make, yet did it with humility. A good song to go with today's devotion is "Good Life" by Audio Adrenaline.