Joy: Week 4 - Day 3
OPENING PRAYER:
Lord, help me keep my focus on you as I make my way through this life. Amen
“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. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
REFLECT:
As you read the focus Scripture you soon realize that Paul’s identity is in Christ’s righteousness, not his own. For those of us who have been very success-oriented, this is a difficult transition to make, regardless of how strong our faith walk is. In July 2009 I made the decision to retire for the fourth time. For 22 years my identity had been tied to being a superintendent of schools. Now I had to decide “what I wanted to be when I grew up” and that was hard to do.
I read a book called Half-Time-Moving from Success to Significance by Bob Buford, a man who had retired as a successful CEO of a major company and focused his skills on serving God. This book, plus prayer and reading Scripture, helped me evaluate my identity as an individual. Through this process and talking with Christians who knew me, I was able to refocus my identity around how I could use the skills developed over the years to serve God. I am not saying the transition was easy and I still dream about being offered a superintendency, but overall, I am happy about the doors the Lord has opened for me to serve here. I had a friend tell me, “Retirement is great if you can keep up with the pace.” I can now say my identity is more tied to serving Christ and not tied as much to my former profession.
APPLY:
We are in an era when there is great pressure to be successful both in a profession and financially. This pressure can easily bring our focus on success rather than on serving God. We need to able to say as Paul did, “My identity is in Christ’s righteousness, not my own.” This cannot be done on our own and we need to study the Word, pray, and have accountability partners to help guide us through this transition in identity
CLOSING PRAYER:
God, help me to be able to say as Paul did that my identity is first of all in you. Amen