The secret hidden in plain sight

“Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Phil 4:11-13

Tom and I often talk about our daily striving to actually live the life that we read about in the word, that there has to be a point to which we stop talking about it and put into practice the things the Word tells us to do. As I was looking once again at Colossians chapter three, where Paul talks about the reality of what the Christian life looks like, I ask myself.."What truly is the picture of the life of a believer?" While I want to say, “It’s the dying...it's the obeying...it’s the deeds that we do,” in Chapter three I am reminded that it isn’t really about me at all. It is all about Christ. All of this life, I think, is summed up in three verses:

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Col. 3:2-4

Tom often talks about eternity being the “dangling carrot”...it’s the reward, the prize, the goal. This phrase “Set your mind on things above” isn’t just a command to glance at or even look at something. This phrase is a determined stare, a focused gaze that causes all other things to fade away into the distance. We are called to set our minds on things above, outside of us, the “after this life is all over” life, a hard thing to do because of the nature of our lives.

We have families and jobs and obligations...things that keep us tied to this world. But God, in this passage, through Paul, says "Fix your mind," look so intently as to gain the prize. Why? Why do this? Because, no longer is this world our life, our identity. I was born Wendy..third out of eight children, mom of four, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an aunt, a mentor, a teacher...these are things that I am...they define me. But here, as I look at this verse, I see something different. I see that salvation, my salvation purchased by Christ through His death on the cross, did something to my identity. It killed it. “For you have died and your life is now hidden in Christ.”

Oh we don’t like to think that we don’t stand out. “I want to be one in a million” “I just want people to appreciate me, see how special I am.” We use noble phrases like, “I just want to make a difference” “I want to make my life count”

This isn't the first time the Word tells us about losing our identity. “The first shall be last.” “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought.” “If I boast, I boast in Christ.” “If anyone wants to gain his life he must first lose it.” “If someone slaps you on the cheek, give him the other.”

This kind of life goes against everything inside of us that is the definition of a good life and yet Paul is saying, “Fix your minds on things above because now you aren’t of this world...you’ve died and your life now is hidden in Christ.” My identity is now Christ. I’ve been, for lack of a better term, morphed into Christ. I now have my eyes focused on what His eyes are focused on: God, eternity. I now have desires that are His desires: love for God, love for fellow man. I am no longer my own. My life is hidden with Christ in God.

Why should I be willing to not be the loudest voice, or seek to control all around me? Why be alright with being forgotten, overlooked, and counted as rubbish to the world? Because it all is worth the reward. Because it was Christ’s path to the reward as well.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God..” Hebrews 12:2

If we are in Christ, then we too look at our own loss of life as the path to the ultimate reward found in the next verse, Col. 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” One day, soon (because even the longest life is just a breath) one day Christ, who is now our life, will be revealed to all of creation, to all men who didn’t have time for Him, all who rebelled against Him. He will be revealed to all angels and principalities in whom the Father placed under His feet. One day God will reveal His glorious Son and a small amount will be revealed with Him...only a few.

A life of living as the last, forgotten, misunderstood and thought of no account because we chose to align ourselves with a Savior that natural eyes and ears cannot see or understand, a life that very few people live, will be rewarded when God reveals His Son. When He reveals His body for all to see, those who followed Him will be revealed as well. It’s like He’s now saying to us.”Wait for it....waaaitt for it.... Remember who you are now. Remember that I’m now your identity. Remember the big day that is coming. Now you live through Me because this life really is the layover. It’s the refining. It’s the preparation.” It’s the image of Christ displayed for others to see...either to build up their faith or to increase their condemnation by their rejection.

If this is true, then I can consider my earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, greed, and all other forms of idolatry. (Col. 3:5) None of those things matter anymore. There is a bigger thing happening!

Paul gives us a glimpse of this truth in His own life when he spoke of being content. We so want contentment, we so want fulfillment and peace and Paul seems to have been able to unlock that secret. He says in Philippians 4:12

“I know how to get along with humble means and to live in prosperity. In every circumstance I’ve learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, of having abundance and suffering need”

I’ve read these verses dozens and dozens of times.. prayed that this would be my story, my testimony, but deep down inside I often ask, “How does He do it? How does he look at it all the same? Being filled and going hungry brings the same level of contentment? I can say God is in control and His ways are perfect but to be able to say, “I’m content” is to say ”I’m resting.. I’m satisfied with this state I’m in” How? The next verse, I think, tells us..”I can do all things THROUGH Christ who strengthens me.” Paul himself realized that he too had died and his life was hidden in Christ...that he was now living through Christ and the strength of Christ was the same when he was hungry as when he was filled. Christ’s identity was the same when there was poverty as when there were riches. Paul’s eyes were fixed on, unmoved from, the things above, in eternity, therefore the things of this life fell into their proper perspective and place.

We often talk about the fact that a Christian must die to His wants and desires, that He must look different, sound different, act different from the world but how? We read the word. We try to pray and be good. We trust when things get heavy and really try to be the best version of ourselves that we can but there’s just one problem...we are still trying to maintain a version of ourselves. We want Christ added to our lives when, in reality, the call is to die to all those versions and become like Christ.

Christ laid down His own life. Not only did He leave heaven to come and live among sinful man...He died. He did what He is calling us to do. He emptied Himself and became a servant. How humbling to the God who holds in his hand the very breath of man to resign himself to insults and abuse from those who were so very far inferior to Him. And yet this was the path...this was the way of Christ. This too is the way of those who would call themselves followers of Christ.

The secret to life really isn’t becoming the best version of ourselves. The secret of life is there in plain sight for those who will see it. I must lose myself, become like Christ, and look daily to the reward that will be here in a blink of an eye. Keep running, my friend. Keep pursuing the things above. One day it will all be worth every tear, every sorrow, every hard day.