DRAGGING OUR TALE

DRAGGING OUR TALE

Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Philippians [GW] 3:7-16These things that I once considered valuable, I now consider worthless for Christ. It's far more than that! I consider everything else worthless because I'm much better off knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It's because of him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ and to have a relationship with him. This means that I didn't receive God's approval by obeying his laws. The opposite is true! I have God's approval through faith in Christ. This is the approval that comes from God and is based on faith that knows Christ. Faith knows the power that his coming back to life gives and what it means to share his suffering. In this way I'm becoming like him in his death, with the confidence that I'll come back to life from the dead. It's not that I've already reached the goal or have already completed the course. But I run to win that which Jesus Christ has already won for me. Brothers and sisters, I can't consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don't look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God's heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus. Whoever has a mature faith should think this way. And if you think differently, God will show you how to think. However, we should be guided by what we have learned so far.

  No, I have not misspelled the old colloquialism “dragging our tail” speaking of tiredness. Though we do definitely suffer fatigue as a result of “dragging our tale”; an hindrance that Apostle Paul speaks to in his letter to the Philippians.

  To illustrate I share a driving story shared with me: Nancy, a fine Christian lady that inadvertently mentors me at times, yesterday told me of her son moving from warmer snowless climate to Omaha. Driving slowly and carefully in this hilly city as the flakes accumulated, he was surprised by the dreaded flashing red and blue in his mirror. Puzzled, he asked the OPD officer what he had done wrong as he thought he was being exceptionally cautious. The officer told him he had done nothing wrong, but that it might be a good idea to release his parking brake as he was dragging his rear wheels along in the snow. (Yes, Gracie, this can be and is done with front wheel drive vehicles.)

  “Never done that!” say many, but how many of us have or do drag along some good or bad tale hindering our progress?

  It matters not whether it’s a past success story or *cacogenic chronicle, or some sorry woulda-coulda-shoulda dramatic travelogue, dragging tales interfere with personal progress in maturation.

  Now before attempting movement toward present and eternal goal let us be certain in mature faith release the brake(s) in order to break with spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical hindrance past.

  May God bless you richly this day as you travel on His way.  EBB4  

*A word for vocabulary lovers: “pertaining to or causing degeneration in the offspring produced.”

PS. Suggest reading John Bunyan’s PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.