IMTS Global

MEMORIAL - On a Personal Note: Pressing On...

Life, real life, is full of ups and downs. We soar from the heights of success and satisfaction to the monotony of the mundane in a matter minutes. Life brings challenges, obstacles and opportunities for failure and defeat. It also brings opportunities to persevere, possibilities for victory and for the exuberance of achievement. Yes, this thing we call life is filled with challenge.

How was your week? How about your month? Perhaps your time-frame requires me asking, how was your year? Nonetheless, I am confident, as you walk in the faith, on a daily basis the world you have been called to walk in brings numerous opportunities for "crossroad decisions". You know what I mean, the decision to go right or left (and in some cases to just plain turn around). Opportunities to give up, to call it quits, to "throw the towel in". But also opportunities to "dig in", meet the challenge head on, and to declare war on your flesh's natural desire to "take the easy way out".

I take comfort knowing my brother Paul understood my heart. I hear and sense in his writings that he was a man of honesty, introspection, but also of veracity. Paul may have never competed in any athletic games (tradition has it that he was a slight, and possibly physically challenged man), however, I would have wanted him on my team. He had tenacity, persistence, what we call, "stick-to-itiveness". I know that that is not a word, however it best conveys my point.

In the third chapter of Phillipians, Paul provides his life's mission statement when he declared:

Phil 3:7-8
7	But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8	More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ..." (NAS)

Using an accounting term he declares his "gain", his life achievements and Jewish credentials as "loss", literally comparing them to dung. In contradistinction, he declares this loss as incomparable to knowing the Savior, "...that I might gain Christ". This was an "athlete" par excellence (my opinion) who knew what both competing, and the prize truly was all about.

Paul goes on to reveal his insight into the mind of the competitor when he describes the need to "press on" through the tough times. He goes on to write:

Phil 3:12-14
12	Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13	Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14	I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (NAS)

Every athlete has all come into contact with what runners commonly refer to as "the wall". Its that time in training, or in the heat of competition when your body and mind decide to go in two different directions. Muscles shut down, cramps spastically seize corrupt coordinated movements, and every fiber in your body makes known their obvious protest. A decision of the mind is crucial at this point. The easy thing to do is lay down, give up, give in. The hard thing to do is press on, push forward, refuse to listen to the belligerency of a body declaring mutiny.

Perhaps as a non-athlete you are not quite sure of my analogy. Let me redefine "the wall" to you. For a new mom the wall can be the incessant crying of her newborn, the seemingly endless mounds of laundry, and the need to face another day, night and even in-between times, of warming formula, cleaning bottles, and struggling to smile, love and nurture this defenseless one. For a husband, it can be the continual assault upon his pride and self at work. The monotony of rising at dawn, returning to the battlefield of work, only to be exposed once again to the depravity of a society seeking its own good, yet doing so with full cognition of the nobler task of providing for a household. Or perhaps, as a senior citizen, the wall can be recognized as the challenge of idleness. That seductive and clarion call to retreat from "active service" in the Lord, to forget those young men and women who need your wisdom and guidance, and to neglect grandchildren who need to see modern-day Caleb's refusing to "give in", and instead "pressing on" (even at 85) with the flint-like resolution. (Joshua Ch 14 & 15)

Paul knew we would need to be encouraged. He knew that we would need to be reminded to hang in there. Pressing on is painful, it requires practice, and it requires vision. It demands that we, like Paul are able to say, "...whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."

So what are you facing today? Where do you need to resolve to "press on"? Like Paul lets resist the temptation to just give up, give in, and lets press on together toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. See you at the finish line!

Coram Deo,

Jeff