To Live is Christ (What does that even mean??)
I’ve been a Christian for 20 years now, and still, there are parts of the Bible I just don’t get.
I think my all time favorite is Exodus 4:24, the very next verse after God sends Moses packing off to Egypt for his big mission: “At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him.” Best segue ever. What follows is even weirder, but I’ll leave that for your enjoyment. Back to the subject at hand…
What got me started on this was last Sunday’s sermon, when our preacher mentioned the familiar passage in Philippians 1:20-23. The most well-known segment is verse 21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
While I’ve never doubted this was true for Paul, I’m pretty sure I haven’t embraced that philosophy myself. I’ve always been a member of the “to live is awesome, and to die is an unfortunate inevitability” camp. Nonetheless, the verse made me wonder what I would write, if forced to be totally honest.
The truth is, I compartmentalize my life into these different buckets; I have a label for each of them, complete with a running tally of how I’m doing.
So here we go; I’m going to share with you the Epistle of Lloyd, Chapter 2, Verse 14:
For to me, to live is:
- Relationships. This is a big bucket with a bunch of little ones inside it. Each has a label and I like to make sure I have them all covered. Am I calling Mom enough? Am I abiding as a Dude among my buddies? Do my Bosses think I’m funny and nice, as well as smart and competent? Do “the Ladies” enjoy my company? One day, I might even be asking whether my Wife still loves me or whether I’m doing a good job with my Kids.
- Finance. This bucket looks more like a wallet. Am I in debt? Am I prepared for eventualities? Might I buy a house one day? How am I looking for retirement?
- Health/Fitness. This bucket is the one I wear over my head at the gym. Could I run a 5k if my life depended on it? How’s that 6-pack coming along? Will I be climbing a 5.12 any time soon? Am I old enough to start worrying about cholesterol? Am I getting enough sleep? Is anyone going to think I’m a fatty at my high school reunion?
- Personal Development. This is the bucket that would be painted in awesome colors if I had art skills. (I don’t.) Do I want to learn some new guitar scales this year? Como es mi español? Have I read any good books lately? Are my coding skills improving at work? Why haven’t I blogged in forever?
This guy is pretty serious about his buckets…
- Ron Paul. Ha, just kidding… he doesn’t get his own bucket. (The only person I’m kidding is myself; I think I might have given him three.)
And last, but not least (or is it?), we have God. Or Jesus. Or Religion. Christianity. Whatever you want to call it — it’s a spiritual bucket. It sounds kind of like a ghost pail, and in practice it can be just as nebulous.
- Church/Spiritual Life. This bucket is the one I carry my Bible in. Have I been going to church x times a week? How is small group going? Am I reading my bible often enough? How’s my prayer life? Am I giving the right amount financially? Do I teach as often as I want?
I guess the truth is, “for me, to live is some Christ, but mostly a bunch of other stuff.”
Honestly though, are those other things bad? I truly believe they aren’t. Keeping your house in order is a good thing. There’s a lot of wisdom to feeding your important relationships, keeping a tab on your finances, maintaining your physical body.
The problem comes when I get way too invested in my bucket collection. God gives me this life, along with all the benefits and responsibilities it entails. I arrange them nicely on my wall and try to make sure they stay in good shape. Didn’t Jesus say I need to have something to show for the talents I was given? He did.
What He did not say is that those talents are mine to own. I’m merely a steward, and God very well may come and decide He needs use of one — or all — of them at any time. The temptation we face at this point is to throw ourselves in front of them and declare that we have everything arranged perfectly. In what is a most ludicrous situation, there are times when I think God’s intervention will mess up what I have going. Never mind that all I have belongs to Him. Never mind that He has graced me with His presence in coming to claim something with which I’ve been entrusted. Never mind that He knows best how to use what I have, and never mind that His purpose is to grow the Kingdom, rather than make my bucket-shelf look awesome.
I think Job dealt with that confrontation. He had all his buckets in a very nice arrangement. God gave him things and Job took really good care of them. As a direct result of Job’s good stewardship, God allowed Satan to come in and kick the mess out of his buckets. He completely destroyed most of them, and nearly killed Job in the process.
That is not how it’s supposed to work. At least, that’s how I think. That’s how Job’s friends thought… and that’s how Job thought too. We know that despite the major disruption, Job remained faithful to God (even amid serious questions), and in the end God gave him new buckets to hold.
The truth about life is that buckets come and go. If we’re afraid to lose them, we bury them in the dirt like the unfaithful servant: “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.” If we take great care of them, we may watch God grow them into something awesome, only to require them of us when we least expect it.
I don’t know how to reconcile the fear of losing God’s gifts with the investment required to take care of them. I do know it’s something Jesus did really well. I also trust that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Life is a good thing. I’m not going to worry about losing buckets to the point that I refuse to enjoy them. I only hope that if and when God comes to claim them, I have the sense to let Him do His work and anticipate what He’s got planned.
May 9th, 2012 - 09:54
Amazing post! I’m blessed to have read it!
I’m also a silly rabbit. Nice dead link there. :)
When it comes to living in the world and living to Christ, I don’t find that it’s a matter of balance (as if there are exactly proportions of buckets), but a matter of focus. We can have all the buckets you mentioned, and as you said, we need to use those buckets to God’s glory. The buckets can distract us from working for God, but we need to remember that whatever we find ourselves doing, we need to do it with a focus on God.
There are two Scriptures that come to my mind about this subject.
Matt 23:23. “You have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.”
1Cor 10:31. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.”
May 10th, 2012 - 22:30
Great perspective, Swango! And yes, you are right; all of those foci and more are to be used for the glory of God. I think we’re much more likely to value God over what He’s given us if we take the view you suggest.
May 14th, 2012 - 12:47
Good title & beginning. I got lost in the body.
Something I wonder… do preachers (like myself) impose our own personality in explaining phrases like “To live is Christ?” Thus making our various explanations a type of Rorschach test of personality & a “tell” of where someone is at a given point of time on their spiritual walk.
Do you think there is a distinct meaning that Paul had in mind that he meant to convey? Or is the phrase hopelessly enigmatic?
October 5th, 2012 - 02:20
Let’s see, where do I begin. God is Good, All the Time. Basically, He provided me with a great starting job with a great starting pay. Now the details.I was praying for God to open doors to where He wants me to be, and close the doors to where He doesn’t want me to go into. So guess what, He answers.Surrender to the Lord, and He will blessA few years back, I surrendered my NS to the Lord. I remember specifically that I told the Lord that I submit it to Him, and being our Almighty Lord, He sent me to Police. I have lots of free time to do what I have to, and I don’t have to suffer much.He has a plan for youNext, I applied for SMU and NUS, I didn’t get in. So I’m sure the Lord doesn’t want me there now. So what’s after that for me since my NS is coming to an end, was work. I applied for a few jobs, and then within a few hours, one of the company, Swee Lee Music Company, called me and asked if I wanted another position, IT Support / Marketing Executive, which they have and not listed on their website. So indeed God is showing me where He wants me to go.God provides for us what we needAnd guess what, He provides me with not just enough money to get through my days, He blessed me with a bag when I need one. (Thanks guys)So let me close with this few verses as a reminder to us all of God’s goodness and greatness.Matthew 6:25-33″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?