“I was driving down the street in a $100,000 vehicle. My kids were in private school. I was wildly successful in my work. I had everything. But I was miserable. It wasn’t until I submitted to the Author of my story that I found peace.”
Someone I know said the above statement as he shared about his life recently. Everything in our world that we see as admirable in a person, the above person had achieved. Yet, he was unhappy. He felt a tug toward Christ, but ignored it. Why? Why do people often ignore such a tug? We fear being even more unhappy than we already are. Even though we might have everything, or something, we fear losing everything because we have become so accustomed to our own way of living. The fear of following Christ not knowing what it will cost us stops us from pursuing Him with our whole hearts.
Paul, from the Bible, had a similar resume. While it does not make much sense to us in our world today, he had everything valued in his culture. He had been raised in the elite Jewish society and trained among the best of the best. He had reached the top, but did not have to stop and it was not bothering him (to quote from the Jungle Book). But Christ intervened and he submitted to Him. Once Paul allowed his life to be changed by Christ, he considered his old life to be nothing compared to what he used to have.
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, 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 is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:8-9).
Before Christ, Paul had it all. He had status, freedom, respect, money, security, a Roman citizenship by birth. Paul did not even say he was unhappy. But he gave it up once he met Christ! Why? Because even the best of this world cannot even compare to knowing Christ. Paul enjoyed his life before Christ. But he considered it nothing once he found Christ.
After coming to know Christ, Paul faced beatings, imprisonments, multiple death threats and attempts on his life. He did not always have enough to eat. He was shipwrecked. His life from many perspectives looked a lot worse. But you know what? He could have quit. He could have just stopped following Christ and went back to having an “easy life.” But he found following Christ way more satisfying despite all of the things he faced. He found his adventurous and unpredictable life with Christ way better than his old status filled worldly successful life as a religious leader without Christ.
Paul called his old life without Christ, “skubala” in the original Greek. The correct English translation for that word would be “shit” or “poop.” The Bible translators cleaned Paul up a bit as they translated Philippians 3. But Paul wanted his readers to know that his old worldly successful life was like the stuff you find in the bottom of a port-o-let compared to his new life with Christ. In other words, it did not even compare.
It’s like, “Would you like to eat a brownie or a pile of poop?” Is that even a question? Would anyone actually say they would rather eat poop? No way! Of course you want the brownie. And that was exactly Paul’s point. Following Christ was that much better! Paul never even imagined going back to his old way of life.
And that’s the message for us today. No matter how great anything in this world may be, it’s absolutely skubala, or port-o-let poop compared to living life for and with Christ. Therefore, we have no reason to fear leaving whatever Christ may be calling us to leave. We have no reason to fear following Him wherever He’s calling us to go, even if into the unknown (Elsa singing in the background). Our lives without Christ are like swimming in poop, no matter how comfortable it feels or how much we cannot smell the stench because we’ve been there so long. Whatever Christ calls us to is so much better. We need not fear, but let Him lift us out of that port-o-let and into His glorious light in order to truly experience a life of fulfillment with Him.
If you’re having trouble letting go of something or moving forward with Christ in a decision, remember that whatever you want to hang on to is like poop compared to what Christ has in store for you. You need not fear. He has great things in store for you, much better than you have now. The best is yet to come.
