The Goal is Christ, the Process is Elimination, the Key is Faith.

An Extraordinary Offer for an Outrageous Life

Drive slowly along a high dirt road atop the Rockies. Watch the sun drift gently into the Gulf of Mexico. Enjoy a delightful giggle with your grandchild. Hear the wild sounds of a swamp in the deep south. Drink in the wonderful aromas of the lilacs along the bike path, or the first whiff of morning coffee. Savor the rich overload of southern butter pecan ice cream. Softly kiss the lips of your life-long love.

These are a few painfully inadequate attempts to share with you the beauty I see in God’s fabulous creation. But there is so much more – unbounded goodness, love beyond limit, creativity and freedom higher than the highest, greater than the greatest.

And all this is in, for and by a very real, living, thinking person. He is not human, but an individual and distinct being with a personality and a presence. He is the creator we commonly refer to as God. And this Creator brought all these things into existence to share himself and the wonder of his beauty and love with you and me. The offer has been made.

Certainly then, it is not a crazy idea to suggest that the greatest pursuit in all of life is to know him, is it? To be made to be so much like him that we might be considered to be united with him? To lay hold of him, which is the great prize of the Creator himself.

The Goal is Christ:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

But the Apostle Paul shows us a better way; he said “... the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings … I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus … forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I [passionately pursue] the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.“ (From Phil 3)

The Process is One of Elimination:

The great goal of life is Christ himself. The process of realizing that is often one of elimination. We spend a lifetime trying this out, then that, and discovering their inadequacy. Money? Nope. Recognition and respect – got some, but still there remains an emptiness. The vacation of a lifetime is all that we dreamed, but Monday morning traffic still awaits when we return.

As new believers we hear many admonitions to do this or be that. As we work hard to follow some of them, there is certainly joy and fulfillment, but too often it doesn’t last. One by one they fail us. Few remain as we continue to mature. What’s left? Being the best Christian at church? That doesn’t work either.

Paul tells us, “… put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more … as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.” (From Phil 3)

There is only so much room within us. Anything we put there that is not Christ, leaves less room for him.

The Key is Faith:

The great goal of life is Christ himself. The process of realizing that is often one of elimination. And each step we take away from a false god and toward him is grounded in the knowledge that nothing we can do or get or be will endear us to him, it is only his grace and His own righteousness that matters. Each step toward Christ is grounded in faith.

One final time we hear from Paul, “… not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith …“ (From Phil 3)

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing in this world more worthy of our personal, full and passionate pursuit than Christ the Creator. In whatever way God is calling – you have received an extraordinary offer. Press on, friend.

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