Day 2895 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Philippians 3:10 NIV

To know Christ.

I believe that is in fact the goal of many, as it should be in our faith. But just how fully? How fully do we want to experience the power of the Gospel? Just how much of the story of Jesus’ life and death are we willing to face? To say that we wish to know Christ means more than simply knowing the Divine who currently sits upon the throne of Heaven. It also means knowing the Man who walked this earth being hated and judged and rejected, and yes, even tortured.

To know Christ isn’t just to know peace. While He does bring peace, He often leads us through turmoil to get there.

But, in all of our preference for comfort and ease and tranquility of life, I'm afraid we kind of neglect that part. We tend to only focus in on the good, the happy, the uplifting, the personally beneficial. We go so far in that direction in fact that we largely loathe our rather minute and miniscule miseries. Truth be told, all of humanity is rather unwilling to even consider that there may be purpose in pain, let alone actually and actively seek that purpose.

As we discussed yesterday, our misconception found in this selfish assumption that this life in this place could somehow be perfect has led to our hatred of all things hard. We look at things like illness and injury and disease and disability as these detrimental circumstances that only serve to make us unhappy and therefore unfulfilled. And when we allow ourselves to continue under that assumption that we're due an easy life, those things will in fact breed doubt in our faith.

Because our thinking that God simply wants us happy and comfortable will obviously cause contention when sadness and frustration and disappointment and discomfort inevitably rear their heads in our lives through hardship and persecution and calamity.

And we see this unfolding constantly both within our lives and the world around us. We do so much complaining, so much whining, so much yelling and screaming and protesting over what are in all reality minor inconveniences. And yet, we claim to be a people that wish to know Christ? As much as it seems unlikely that we have forgotten, He wasn't liked. He wasn't made comfortable. He wasn't treated like the royalty and divinity that He truly is by this world that we are still living in.

So what of Christ is it that we're wanting to know? Is it just the good things? Just the happy thoughts? Just the wonderful promises that lie ahead? Or do we, rather are we willing to actually follow Him through the fires of life in order for our faith to be refined? Are we willing to humble ourselves to enduring trial and tribulation in order to more fully comprehend the true experience of what it is to be a Christian in a highly sacrilegious world?

This Christ we claim to want to know humbled Himself to the point of leaving Heaven to come to earth, to taking on the traits and limitations of a human, and to even being tortured and killed by those He only wished to save. He walked this earth not seeking comfort, because He knew it wouldn't come. He spent His time here not seeking His own personal gain, but the glory of His Father. He gave away His life in the most inhumane way possible, only in order to show His love through the hatred He faced.

Are we willing to do the same? Are we willing to surrender our lives if it means furthering the Gospel? Are we willing to embrace the hatred and ridicule of those we're only trying to help? Are we willing to go to the extremes to which He went in order to make known the fullness of the power He holds? Friends, we complain and throw a fit when someone cuts us off in traffic. How can we say that we're willing to do all He did, be all He is, and experience everything He went through when we find such ease in getting angry and upset over things that hold no meaning?

My point is that, in this life, we're not going to have it perfect. We'll not have it easy. And to be perfectly honest, if we want the full Christian experience, we shouldn't seek those temporary comforts. We shouldn't crave these personally gratifying idols that we spend so much time chasing. We shouldn't be so quick to become angry with God when we don't get our way, or when His will takes time, or when we have a rough day.

But to our detriment, that's exactly how we tend to behave. We carry ourselves like these spoiled brats who don't deserve to have a bad day, when in reality, we don't deserve a good day. We don't deserve a moment of peace. We don't deserve a single fleeting moment of happiness considering all we've done that's gone against Him. And yet, the happiness and peace and good days that we do have are usually taken for granted and not seen as the undeserved gifts that they are.

Instead, we focus on the things that make us angry, that go against our plans, that bring us trial and difficulty. We rage against the will of God all because we still hold to that foolish idea that this life is meant to be perfect, to be easy, to be everything we want it to be and nothing we wish to avoid.

So how is it that we're ever going to know Christ if we're unwilling to know hardship? How can experience our faith grow if we hate the rain that waters it? How can move closer to Him if we continue allowing ourselves to scorn the very trials that give us the best possible opportunity to learn to lean on His strength? How do we expect to grow if we're so clearly unwilling to move or be moved?

Friends, as you should be well aware of by now, life ain't the sunshine and roses nonsense that so many still expect it to be. It's hard. It's messy. It's scary. It's painful. It's loaded with trials and strife and misunderstandings that are only exasperated by the fact that we're trying to follow Christ through the same world that killed Him! What is it that we expect the life of a Christian to be except the continuation of the examples of those who have gone before us?

The fact of the matter is, and it's apparently a fact we'd rather just ignore, but none of us are getting out of here alive. None of us will ever live a life without hardship. Nobody will ever be immune to disease, to illness, to injury, to persecution, especially if we truly wish to follow Christ in this place where He's still not welcome.

Christ came to this earth and humbled Himself to dying a human's death in order to bring us humans new life through His resurrection. If we truly wish to experience the fullness of His power, of His authority, of this faith we claim to be prioritizing in our own lives, then we too must humble ourselves even to the point of death as that's the only way to truly learn to appreciate the new life to which we've been called.

There's this fairness that I think we tend to overlook, or more likely knowingly ignore, that reminds us that it's not about us or our happiness, or our comfort, or our gain, or our glory. It's about Him. It's about our need of whatever it takes to make us more like Him. It's about the fact that we've been offered salvation from who we've been, and that the only way to accept it and embrace it is to get rid of who we've been.

In order to know more of our faith, we have to be willing to experience more of Christ, more of what He went through, more of how He is still regarded by those around us. The life of a Christian isn't one of immediate reward or ongoing comfort or immutable prosperity. It's one of sacrifice, courage, humility even to the point of death. It's being willing to trust in God's will even when it's nothing like what we want it to be. Even when it's something that we can't understand. Even if it's something we can't survive.

If we truly wish to know Christ, then we had better be willing to know hardship, to know pain, to know suffering, to know sacrifice, to know the misery of loving those who harbor only hatred in return. That's the Christian experience. This world hates Him, what do we expect? They killed Him, do we think they won't still do the same? He gave up everything to reach out for us, what are we willing to go through in order to reach for Him?

Be it illness or injury, torture or turmoil, hatred or harassment, these lives spent seeking to know Christ will bring trial and hardship and pain and discomfort. But those things, as much as we hate them, give us a truly unique opportunity to experience just a little bit of what it means to walk this narrow road. They give us the chance to feel His power through our weaknesses. They are our chance to experience Christ more fully, because when we're broken and bleeding and tired and unable, He knows. He's been there. And since He's been there and walked through it, He can walk us through it too.

We have to stop wishing away the very things that He has ordained to bring us the opportunity to know Him. Are they hard? Sure. Painful? Absolutely. But if we're always happy, always comfortable, always content and unworried and unalarmed and unthreatened, then we're not growing. We're not learning. We're not pushed, and if we're not pushed, we've proven we'll simply stay put.

God sends calamity and chaos in order to help us better understand peace. Illness allows for our appreciation of health. Fear deepens the value of hope. Darkness only makes the light shine brighter. And, only in our faith, death makes life all the more precious because we know what He went through to give us that life. And if we truly want the full experience, then we too should be ecstatic to die ourselves if it means knowing new life in Jesus.

Our faith isn't only the participation of peace and rest and hope and the promise of eternal joy. It's also the participation in His sufferings, in His trials, in His rejections, in His persecution, in His death. Because it's only when we've gone through those things that we can even begin to understand the kind of love that would choose them. You and I know we'd never choose to endure what He did for us. That's what makes it so beautiful, so powerful, so life-altering.

May we allow our lives to be altered in the manner in which He sees fit. May we allow for the pain that helps us learn more of His purpose and power. May we embrace the call to die to self in order to live for Christ so that we don’t know of only the promises He offers without also knowing the cost they carry. May we humble ourselves to striving into the deluge of His grace, even if it means we get wet and cold and hungry and lonely and broken in the process.

The Christian faith doesn't bring this perfect worldly life that we've long sought and assumed would be there so long as we acted like good little boys and girls. If anything, it only brings a greater number of hardships and trials because we choose to be His people. But considering all He did to accomplish all we've been given, we shouldn't want anything less. Not because it's fun to be in pain or to be hated or to go so far as to face death.

But simply because He experienced all of those Himself, and so our experiencing of them only allows us to know more of Him.

Whatever it takes, that should be our prayer. Not for an easy road home. Not for a life free from pain or misery. Not for a fleeting existence filled with only prosperity and absolutely no persecution. Not even for a quick and painless death. But for whatever it takes to know Him more. Come what may, the point is knowing Christ. And we simply shouldn't allow ourselves to question whatever He's planned in order to give us that opportunity.

This road will be hard, and we should be unspeakably thankful for that promise. Because His power is felt most noticeably when we’re rendered powerless by the situations and circumstances of life. He promised He would make a way. Never said it would be easy, but that we would be better for having the relentless resolve to follow it no matter how difficult it may be. Because the promise is on the other side. This part of the story only serves to make that other side all the more rewarding.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold