Trophies
I have won a lot of trophies in my lifetime. I have excelled at baseball, bowling, and martial arts. My trophies are visible exhibitions of my achievement and success. As I was de-cluttering our basement a couple of weeks ago, I saw how much dust my “precious” trophies had collected. As my ego and pride took me down memory lane of each achievement, the Spirit said to me: “Throw them away.” My first reaction was: “But, what about all the practices, sweat, injuries, the time, and the money? How will people know that I have achieved and have succeeded?” Then he reminded me, with these words from Philippians, of the one trophy I should be pursuing everyday:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith,
. . . that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.”
What trophies are you holding on to, that Jesus may be calling you to count as rubbish in order for you to be found in him and know the surpassing worth of him?
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Tags: Humility, In Christ, Pride, Priorities, Success
December 1st, 2009 at 11:15 pm
sometimes we need our earthly trophies just as a reminded of the many gifts and talents God has given us. We should never worship them or the achivments they honor. As moses told of what God had done in the past to the younger generations, so we should. Sometimes by showing them our trophies.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 am
Kim, I certainly understand your point. You are right, we should never worship our achievements and successes, but sometimes God asks us to give up some things to show him that we love him "more than these." I just wanted to be obedient to what I believe God was prompting me to do. If God told you to give up some of your prized possessions, could you? Would you give up willingly or he have to pry them away from you, one finger at a time? Kim, thanks for adding your voice to the conversation. Great illustration from the history of the Israelites!