Aiming for Nothing

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death --
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place . . .”
--Philippians 2:5-9

Imagine your school guidance counselor -- or your dad -- sitting you down to talk about your future and saying, “I just want you to know I really believe in you. You have so much potential. My hope is that you’ll really make nothing of your life. I think if you focus and stay on track, you’ll be one of the best nothings ever! Don’t settle for anything less than being less than everyone else.”

Um, what?

That’s exactly what Paul is saying to his good friends in the local church in the Roman sea port colony of Philippi. In the few verses before this one, he explained that one thing that makes for divided, frustrated churches is that everyone is looking out for themselves. He told them to walk into church with no agenda except to help to make everyone else successful. He commanded them to develop a “me last” philosophy.

What a lousy inspirational poster that would make! But Paul said if we call ourselves Christ-followers, we might as well become Christ-like thinkers. And what was Jesus’ attitude? He “made himself nothing.” Notice four quick things.

1) Jesus was NOT nothing. He was “in very nature God.” He is God in His DNA, to the very core of His being. He deserved to be treated like the creator of the universe. You’re not nothing, either. You’re made in God’s image. As a believer, you’re a child of His. You absolutely deserve to be treated with respect, kindness, love.

2) Jesus gave up His right to be treated like Someone, and chose instead to become a servant of everyone. Jesus-followers give up the right to demand respect, kindness, love. Instead, we choose to treat others that way.

3) Jesus didn’t serve others because they deserved it. They did not. We did not. “Death” did not deserve to be obeyed by Jesus. He volunteered. Your parents. Your friends. Your teachers. None of them always deserve your respect, kindness, love, or obedience. So why give it to them?

4) Jesus trusted that the Father would lift Him up and honor Him when the time is right. We obey, honor, respect, love others who don’t deserve it or give it back . . . because we trust God to take care of us when the time is right. Because He deserves to be obeyed and honored.

So get out there and really make nothing of yourself this week. It’s the only life worth living.

Too Proud Not to Worry?

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Know any worriers? Some of us earn reputations with our friends and family for always worrying about something. The rest of us just hide it better. Once you get started, it’s tough to stop. You’ll never run out of good things to worry on -- from fretting over unsightly blemishes and odd-fitting clothes to obsessing over who likes us and who doesn’t. We can fill our minds with “what if” thoughts about the worst things happening and “why not me” thoughts about good things happening to others. What triggers your worry instinct?

If you read these two verses together, they seem a little disconnected. They come at the end of a paragraph about humility. Peter writes that humility involves trusting God to meet our needs for significance (being loved, feeling respected, being “stable”) in His timing. Then he turns around and tells us to throw (not drop) all of our worry on God, because He likes us.

Of course, the ideas are not disconnected at all. Trusting God with our anxiety is an action of humility. Holding on to worry is an act of great pride. “I can’t let go of this thing; I’ve got to fix it.” The problem is that “fixing” is God’s job. Humility = trusting the God who loved you enough to give His Son for you and was powerful enough to raise Him from the dead. Pride = holding on to worry because God might not be able to handle your problem as well as you can.

What do we really think about God’s love, power, and goodness? The answer has a lot to do with how much time we spend worrying.

Love that Knows Stuff

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.“ (Philippians 1:9-11, NIV)

Sometimes girls and guys give each other lousy gifts for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I understand. I have a terrible time knowing what to get for people. Still, you’ve got to wonder what a girl is thinking when she gives a 16-year-old guy a heart-shaped keepsake box. Or when a guy gives his girl two tickets to the monster truck rally and car show coming to the Event Center on Sunday, SunDay, SUNDAY!!! For her birthday. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m guessing they don’t know each other very well.

In this passage, Paul tells the Christians in a town called Philippi one of the things he prays for them. Turns out this is an excellent paragraph for us to pray for ourselves or others.

Paul says, in essence, ”It’s awesome how much you love God, but just loving Him isn’t enough. You’ve got to get to know Him, so you can understand what will really make Him happy.“ When I first fell for my wife, I gave her stupid gifts. My feelings were strong. Really strong. But I didn’t really know her very well. I needed to add some knowledge about her to my love. And I did want to know her better. We spent hours grilling each other about our favorite things, best and worst memories, opinions on music, movies, and anything else we could think of.

Paul’s prayer tells us that our love for God should makes us hungry to know Him better and better, too. Why? Because knowing Him helps us to understand how best to give Him our lives in the way He wants. How does someone who loves God relate to their parents? How does that person deal with truth? How does that person pick a college or a boy/girl friend? Knowing the God I love leads to making better choices for Him. In the end, it’s all about bringing Him glory by living a life that really matters.

Why not take a few minutes every day this week to pray this short paragraph for yourself and one other Christian? And girls, bonus gift-buying tip: Most guys don’t like heart-shaped . . . anything. I’m just saying.

Know the Designer

Wisdom is speaking in Proverbs 8:22-31:

“The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.

“I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”

When I’m playing a video game or watching a movie, part of me is always aware that everything in the story was created by someone (or a team of someones). The writer, the director, the actors -- they have decided together who the people are, where they will go, what they will do, how the story will turn out. What difference does it make? Well, in a really involved video game, getting inside the head of the people who wrote the code helps you figure out how to beat the game. In a movie, keeping up with what the director is up helps you figure out what he’s trying to say.

In this week’s passage, Wisdom delivers some huge news: She was there “in the beginning.” God used her as a “craftsman” when He was designing and implementing all of creation. The very universe we live in was designed based on God’s wisdom.

What difference does it make? Wisdom is telling us that the better we get to know God, the more of His wisdom we acquire, the better we’ll understand the world around us. In other words, if you want to figure out how life works, Wisdom can tell you. She saw the blueprints before construction even began.

People who reject God’s wisdom (fools) are missing out on the ancient source for understanding all of life from the ground up. They’d rather just observe the world around them and come to their own conclusions. A guy named Galileo said that those two things go hand-in-hand for a full understanding of real life.

Most people remember Galileo for his run-in with the Catholic church over his scientific discoveries regarding the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. While it’s true that the church pressured Galileo into suppressing his own ideas, most people don’t realize the famous scientist was a Christian committed to the truthfulness of the Bible. He didn’t feel any of his discoveries contradicted Scripture. He said: “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.”

Get to know the mind of God through the Bible, and get to know Him better through observing His Wisdom-fueled craftsmanship in nature. That’s the path to figuring out both the big picture and how to work the controls of your own life today.