Resolutions to Live By (Part II)

“Resolutions to Live by” Part II  ( Philp. 3 :6-11)

We have been discussing the application of these verses which is backwards from our normal method. Normally we study the original language and then make application. So with these next Vida’s I want to get into the original language of specific key words and see what we can learn, starting with the first verse. It is going to be an eye opener, but first a story for context.

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” I do not know how many of us are living the life we had envisioned for ourselves while we were in college, I know I’m not. I desired to work in a large wholesale nursery where I could experience all the different faucets of it and have room for advancement. My desire was to work myself up the corporate ladder as I proved that I was capable of the tasks given me. It was a perfect fit for me, between my love of plants and leadership ( I was Student Body President in High School). My first interview was at Hines Wholesale Nursery and I was hired. I was very active in my high school and being Student Body President sold the deal ( wasn’t sure why, as opposed to more schooling, but I was glad it did). It also excited me that the nursery had been bought by the corporate giant Weyerhauser. In my first five years of working in the corporate nursery I worked in 4 different departments and by the time I was 21 I was overseeing 13 acres of liner stock (baby  plants). This was the very heart of this 600 acre nursery. I had 40 employees that answered to me, many the age of my parents.

Every summer the nursery offered a student program giving college students the opportunity to work at the nursery. They spent two weeks in each department and every two weeks through the summer I had 3 interns. They always looked at me with questioning eyes, as if to say your too young to be in this position. I got this look from everyone who I was introduced to, I understood. However I took my job seriously, much like Joseph with Potipher and David, when at 21 years of age, was leading a division of the Israel army into war. These God fearing young men were my inspiration and my prayer daily was,”God give me your wisdom and use me.”

Things moved along well career wise. I got promoted and was sent to Vacaville to manage all the inventory in a 200 acre nursery. A new site for Hines. That’s a lot of plants and responsibility! I was viewed by the Irvine nursery as the shining star and was often told by those who I worked with that they were glad I was going to Vacaville to keep things straight. Vacaville was beautiful with  its rolling hills and miles and miles of country, so very much unlike Orange Country. Prior to transferring I got married and while in Vacaville we had our first child. I was so glad to get out of So.Cal., however work was tough. I had to prove myself again as I was viewed as too young to have so much responsibility. There were many a day I had to exert my authority with people much older than me. I did not like doing that but I understood until they knew me, I would not have their respect. In time we settled, however I was still viewed as the transplant from Irvine Hines. At times this worked to my advantage because they knew, that I knew, all the “powers to be” and could call them at anytime. However after 6 years Weyerhauser decided to sell the nursery. We were told that some of us were going to be sent back to Southern Cal. I was certain that I would be one of them. I knew my counterpart in Irvine, he was responsible for training me, I also knew he needed help – I did not want to go back. I began interviewing at all the nurseries in Northern Ca., and the one that had the position I wanted was located in Fresno. We interviewed and I was hired.

I was both happy and sad. I felt I was going backwards in my career, leaving the corporate world for a father/son operation. They were so backward in everything they did that it took me a year to get them up to speed. I always liked walking the nursery in the evening when everyone was gone as I planned for the next day; I often wondered if I had made a mistake. However God’s presence was growing in my life. As field supervisor of a small nursery I made decisions from production to plant practices. Often I  had to explain to the owners as to why things were done as such. My best friends were the salesmen who would tell me that ever since I took over field operations that the plants sold themselves. My response was the same each time, tell the owners.

During one lunch time I read the verse we are studying, “what things were gain to me I counted as loss for the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” I knew this verse, having read Paul’s testimony many times before, but this time it was personal; I finally understood. My corporate ambition was me trying to fulfill me, and we all do this. Whether it is through our jobs, our family, or a special activity, there is always something we do and or strive for to give us that sense of identity, that my life matters. I knew that the Holy Spirit was asking me to surrender my corporate ambition and to make Him my ambition. I accepted His invitation, making Him my Great Prize. From corporate ambition to Christ’s ambition in me and for me. It was as if I was born again, again. Though scripturally we are taught we are “reborn” once, I have also experienced several “A-HAH”moments in my life and this definitely was one of them. I grew a mile during that 30 minute lunch period. As I look back on that year’s events, The Lord had been “engineering” this moment. It was wonderful, I felt so free from all my “driving” ambitions ( a type A problem) and from feeling the pressure to become somebody.

His presence was deepening in me as I sought Him in greater earnestness. I understood that whatever pushed me closer to Christ was what I wanted, be it blessing or trial, they both had there purpose. Everything settled in me; I felt solid. I felt like a puzzle that had finally been put together correctly. I was even happy, something that I had not been for some time. I was 30 years old. I began to teach  Spanish Bible studies to the men as they would ask me why I was so different. We met in the evenings, as I did not feel right about witnessing on the job. This lasted for about two years until the owner found out. He was so mad that I was “indoctrinating” his men that I knew my job was on the line. I began to interview again, but now in Northern Cal. During our stay in Fresno  our second daughter was born so Fresno would always be remembered as such, plus where I became God’s man. I got hired at a wholesale nursery in Roseville. I was so delighted to head back to what I considered home.

I could continue to tell my story but enough has been said to give us context to our verse. Now I want to study this verse in detail and make application.

The words “gain and loss” are accounting terms. Paul, as it were, is taking account of all his assets, all his accomplishments, schooling ( which he had Ivy League education), his position in the Pharisees (which I believe he was going to become the next High Priest) as though they were written in the asset column of his life and he puts a big X through them and transfers them over to the loss column as he writes Jesus Christ into the asset column of his life. All those accomplishments could not give him the joy, the peace, or the love that knowing Jesus Christ did. His life prior was always a life of striving, seeking to prove to himself and to others that he was capable and worthy. Sound familiar?

 In Christ all that striving ends, as once and for all His love settles the question of our worth. Christ is able and fully capable to work in us and through us and cause us to fill good about who we are, and who we are becoming. As I’ve said before, His love is a game changer. And though I often speak of His love, I am concerned that many of us truly do not know it. If you are growing in Christ, then that deep knowing will come as you continue to seek Him.  If you are not growing and you truly remember a day when you were born again, then you are lukewarm.

I was lukewarm one time in my life, never to be again, by the grace of God.  Jesus says in Revelations 2:4, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” To have left my first love means I have replaced Him with something or someone else, not a smart move. And in Revelations 3:15&16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Just as lukewarm water is distasteful and we spit it out, so a lukewarm life is the same to the Lord. And why, or what causes this condition, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” To be “lukewarm” means we have a high view of ourselves and a low view of Christ. It also means that our worship and desire are for the things and people of this world and not for God. We are lukewarm because just like water, we have two opposing streams entering into us and they each cancel out the other. We have not “Counted the Cost,” and there is not a more miserable person on the face of the earth than a lukewarm Christian. 

Counted is to consider, to give serious thought, but it also has the interesting definition of appointing, assigning, giving an order. It’s as if one looks at their list of accomplishments and assigns them, one by one to the lost column as knowing Christ becomes so much more meaningful, and this works for failures as well. To look at my failures and defeats and to see that in Christ they all have had a purpose, as it was those defeats God used to bring me to Him. He now would become my success – my Great Prize. Everything changes, from loser to victor because He gives my life purpose, direction and meaning.

We need to continue our discussion in the following Vida, but for now we have said enough. However in ending, I would leave us with a lyric of one of my favorite songs, “The art of losing myself to bring You praise.” This was Paul’s goal, and it needs to be ours as well.

Father God,

We were made by You and for You; to know You and grow in relationship with You is our highest goal and purpose. To do this is to live in harmony with everything that we are and are meant to be. Help us to understand this one single truth. Thank you and Amen