Day 3093 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Philippians 3:10 NIV

Many want to know about Christ, but to know Him demands a kind of surrender saved for very few who are actually willing to lose everything in order to gain what can’t be found while still living.

Because it requires a rare mindset that allows a person to admit and accept that they’ve been living a life that never brought them anywhere close to where they wanted to be. It’s that shattered reality that leaves you ready and willing to let it all go. And I'm not talking about the mere surrender of the trinkets and toys that a person's accumulated. Not talking about the hopes and dreams planned out across a few years spent potting a path toward a perfect life.

What this faith deserves is something altogether deeper than all that.

This faith rages well beyond the surface and superficial, and that’s a place few are willing to go. But until we do, we’ll simply find ourselves going nowhere. No, having been so lost for so long trying so hard to convince myself I'd found everything I wanted, everything I needed, everything I could have ever hoped for in life only to be left kneeling before the cross holding absolutely nothing but shame and guilt and regret, to share in Christ takes on a whole new meaning.

Sadly, it seems that most of what most of the world cares to know about Christ is that which we've deemed immediately beneficial. The promises, the healing, the hope, the gift of a home free from all we don't want to have to deal with anymore. We love the idea of a place with no more crying or pain or poverty or persecution. We appreciate the gift of forgiveness and the mercy needed to heal the wounds we've inflicted upon ourselves.

We love the idea of Jesus hanging on the cross covering the sins we've yet to refrain from making.

But how many of us would truly trade places?

How many of us would readily welcome the rebuke and rejection of an entire population? How many of us would dare speak the unpopular truth in a place still overwhelmingly overrun with opinions and feelings that are so easily fractured? How many of us would be of the courage to stand before trial and say nothing in our own defense? How many of us would choose the path of pain brought about by lashes and thorns, nails and disgrace?

How many of us would pick up that cross knowing what lay just beyond those agonizing steps up that hill? How many of us would hang in that place holding hearts filled with compassion for those who'd done all that to us, as they stood cheering below? How many of us would die in order to overcome sin and enslavement that were in no way our own?

Truth is that very few of us even really consider ourselves sinners who are enslaved to ourselves. Few of us look in the mirror and see any reason to feel bad, to feel shame, to feel guilt. No, for the most part those things are among the lengthy list of thoughts and ideas and feelings that we go out of our way to avoid. We don't like feeling bad, feeling ashamed, feeling as lowly as we really are.

So for us to act as if we're the heroes in this story when we know full well that it's still our glory which is often our priority is only proof of the growth we've still yet to embrace. No, I dare say scant few would take His place. And yet, until we're at that point, understanding the fullness of this faith is and will remain an impossibility.

We cannot know Christ if we continue to run from the hardships we face in life. We can't claim share in Him if we'll not share in His miseries. We can't rightly take upon ourselves His most glorious Name if we'll not embrace the life He's asked us to live that will bring us pain. Because we have to accept that it will bring us pain. But so often we read the wrong headline when those rainy days roll in.

We think that pain in life is proof we're doing something wrong. We think being refused and rejected testifies that we're unwanted or unwelcome. We've somehow somewhere at some point adopted this mindset which tells us that if it's hard then it's bad. And in that lie we find a people losing the ability to become who He's asked us to become on this side of truth.

Truth is that pain can be a great teacher. Being rejected for standing up for something is a great opportunity to learn resolve. Hatred from this world only proves we're less like the world than we've been before. And honestly, we need that. We need the hate because it strengthens us. We need the hassle as it helps us grow. We truly need to go through this most daunting kind of reformation as we've still countless things, unseen things to learn and even more to let go.

See, surrender isn't just a potential aspect of this path. Letting go isn't merely an idea to be considered. It's not enough for us to simply hold tight the assumption of our being able to extend the least effort possible. No friends, this faith both demands and deserves that we devote the entirety of ourselves to whatever may be asked of us. Because Christ didn't just endure the beating. He didn't merely stand on trial. Hanging on the cross was only part of His accomplishment.

He knew that what had to be done could only be done in death.

And until we too learn that lessons and purchase that ticket, we'll be on the outside wondering what might be.

This world has taught us that death is this great big monster to spend a life outrunning. It's something that shouldn't really even be talked about as if doing so might somehow conjure or hasten its arrival. It's this finality that's seen as the grand end to all we don't want to ever be over. Death is seen, and rightly so, as the end. But what nobody here seems to consider is what it is that's being ended in death.

Is it truly the end of life or just the end of life as we know it? Is it the completion of our whole existence or just the half-way point of an endless journey? Is it really this inescapable reality or just an escape from the limits of this reality?

You see, having all of us spent so much time avoiding and running and hiding in fear of everything that's been deemed scary and hard and painful has left us unable and most unwilling to consider any of the questions above. It's just the end and that's the end of our contemplation of it. Don't mention it. Don't talk about. Don't dare bring it up because people in this place are still enjoying themselves.

And there's your problem. Life as we know it all about enjoyment. It's all about us doing what we still think best for us. It's all about us, all the time, all the way, every moment of every day. All about us and what brings us the outcome we want to find in life. Happiness, comfort, enjoyment, acceptance, accomplishment, affirmation, affection. If it benefits us in ways in which we think we benefit then we're fine with it. If not, it's just not welcome.

Well friends, let me welcome you to the reality of our faith. That cross we see on churches, on cars, on clothes, on chains hanging just below chins means more than a promise. It's a price. It's a reflection of more than a coming reward. It's also a current requirement. It signifies the death of Christ, yes, but so too does it beckon us to take up our own burden and carry it through this life until He says we're done.

This life of faith following a hope we can't see demands we learn to look beyond what we want to see. We don't want to see pain. Don't want to see challenge. Don't want to see danger blocking our path and making our road more daunting. We don't want to see anything but sunshine and rainbows and preferably some fluffy little bunny rabbits hopping cheerfully alongside us as we skip down this picture-perfect life filled with nothing but ease and enjoyment.

Read the Bible folks. Please. It's not just a book teaching us some wise-sounding words that help us sound smart. It's not just a story aimed at making us comfortable. It isn't a promise of a life free from burden. It's a promise of a life that will make Heaven's peace truly priceless. It's a promise of a power Who takes everything we've known and flips it upside down to the very point where death is the beginning and life becomes unending.

And sadly, it's that power that we're missing the opportunity to witness, to feel, to know simply because we don't want to know the path that leads us toward Him. He's not found in moments where we're comfortable and rested and at ease. He's found best when we're broken and lost and confused and losing hope we didn't know we had in the first place.

He's found perfectly when life is crumbling all around us and are hearts lay so broken on the ground beside us that death seems a welcome friend. But how many of us ever allow ourselves to go to those places where we've got nothing to gain and only everything to lose?

My question for you today is do you truly want to know Christ. Not know of Him. Not know about Him. Not know some of His promises or the pretty words with which He gave them. Do you want to know Christ? Because if you do, and I mean really do, then you can't keep stopping half-way home. You can't quit at just those verses that point to the promises. You can't just hang a cross around your neck, toss up a prayer and get back to the life you've always lived.

Because until we're willing to change, nothing will change. Until we're willing to let go, we can't move forward. And until we embrace misery, we'll simply never know mercy. Just not possible.

Friends, there's a fullness of Christ that's sadly hard to find or hear about in our modern teachings and sermons and messages. It's so lopsided anymore that it's honestly no wonder that so many Christians are hard to pick out from the crowd. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but sometimes we need that reminder that we're falling short. Because we all do it, just can't afford to let it become the normal procedure anymore.

He calls us to take up our crosses, not just fall down before His whenever we accidentally let ourselves finally feel guilty. He asks us to follow Him, and friends, His path through this place wasn't all fun and games. Far from it. His path was one of pain and loss. And until we're willing to welcome those, how can we say we've welcomed Him?

Personally, I've known the way of life this world has to offer. I've known popularity and prosperity. I've seen comfort and felt relief. I've lived the way everyone else does. And like everyone else, I've been left nothing to show for it but a few memories and a list of regrets. I've got nothing to lose because I've had nothing gained in living as if this place were my home and this life my own.

I want to know Christ. Every single part. Every single pain. Every single step away from this world into the tomb that only He can turn into a turnstile. Because I know that the only way to find life is to let this one go. Resurrection only happens when death has too. Jesus knew that, that's why He came. Not only so that sin wouldn't hold us anymore, but so that our fear of death and pain and loss wouldn't hold us back anymore either.

Fullness is what our faith deserves. And until we allow ourselves to let everything go, we cannot possibly understand everything He's done. If we want to call ourselves by His Name, then we should embrace the pain that points us deeper into Him. There's no other way, because if it's easy we'll just keep trying it by ourselves.

We need to be broken that we can be put back together. He knows the way, He is the Way. Are we willing to walk it?

#LeaveNoSoulUntold