Praise the Lord for the season of summer. The beauty that Lord lavishes
upon us and with which He surrounds us is both stunning and spectacular.
When our daughters were young we went camping every summer. We frequented
the county, state, and even national parks. There were times we
"camped" in churches, while we went to the beaches and
lakes. Praise the Lord for the immeasurable and abundant
beauty of our Lord we get to celebrate. We "religiously"
attended such summer Christian Festivals as Creation
and Kingdom Bound. Yesterday some of us took our nephew, who is
visiting from India, to the iconic Niagara Falls. It was almost a
perfect day. All of our nephews and nieces went with us. It was
a great treat; the falls were spectacular. We saw tourists and
visitors from many parts of the world enjoying the beauty of the Lord in His
creation. Praise the Lord that He has given us eyes to behold His
splendor and beauty, hearts to love Him, and minds to know Him and serve
Him.
Sometimes we hear that humanity’s chief problem is that we have too much. This is one of the tenets of Buddhism. It is true that we consume too much. We amass too much. We hoard too much. The problem of humanity is not that we want too much, but that we are satisfied with too little. C.S. Lewis described our situation in his book The Weight of Glory. “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."
In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul opened up about his own desires. Past accomplishments are all well and good. Indeed, they have their place. Paul certainly bore the mark of God’s covenant with Abraham. He was born, not merely baptized, into God’s chosen people. He was from the tribe that gave Israel its first king and formerly bore his name, Saul. Paul did not denigrate his pedigree or accomplishments in themselves, and we should not downplay ours either. Praise God for lives well spent! After having met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was hooked. Nothing he had accomplished in the past, nothing he might sacrifice, could compare to knowing Jesus, living in Him, enjoying His righteousness, walking in His power, fellowshipping with Him in times of suffering, becoming like Him, and eventually joining Him (vv. 7-11). Compared against that, everything else paled.
We can understand. No matter how good our lives are right now, we sense there might be something better out there waiting for us. In other words, we know that we have not yet arrived. As much as he already knew of Christ, Paul knew there was more to be attained (vv. 12-14)—not just heaven but a full and final union with God through Christ. Paul wasn’t about to rest on his laurels. There was an eternal crown to be won (2 Timothy 4:8), one that he could lay at Jesus’ feet (Revelation 4:10).
In Christ Jesus our Lord.
Brown
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