Losing

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered to loss of all things... in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him. … That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

~ Philippians 3:7-11

You're a loser.

No offense, and don't stop reading because you feel insulted. :)

Let's break down this passage from Philippians in order to understand why. But before we do so, a quick disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any random tangents or ideas that don't make sense that may appear in this post. I wrote those, um, while I was, um, asleep.

Now, let's talk about losing! Some of you may be familiar with the idea that when we give everything we have and are to Christ, we can be deemed losers; there's even t-shirts out there that say it! But what does this really mean? That's the question I'd like to explore today.

Paul makes a comparison in his letter between gain and loss. In life, there are certain things that we “gain.” This could mean a variety of things. I'm sure that you can think of a thing or two right now that you've gained in your life. Actually, stop reading and think. What is one thing that you've gained? Maybe it was by your own accord, or maybe it was with the help of someone or something else. If you are at a total loss, I can think of one or two for all of us; have you ever broke at a qualifier? Placed at a tournament? Won a speech category? Qualified for Nationals? Even if you've never done any of these things, I know you've gained skills and talents from competing in NCFCA. These can all be classified as something that we've “gained” in our lives.

However, Paul doesn't stop by just saying that we give up awards that we've won or skills that we've learned; our gains. Rather, we count everything as loss, in order to gain Christ Jesus. Have you ever thought about what everything means? Think about it. Is everything something that you have? Is it the whole universe? Outside our universe? Every atom that's ever existed? What does everything mean to you?

Yeah, that's right. Everything.

While you're sitting there with your mind blown, let's talk about loss. Have you ever lost something important to you? We lose little things all the time; maybe we don't get an A on that test we wanted to, or we don't win the contest we entered, or a friend moves away, or someone on our basketball team plays better than we do. Stop and think about one thing that, no matter how big or small, you've lost. Little disappointments and losses in life can often get us down; but this is the exact message that these verses want us to understand. When we lose, we shouldn't think about what we've lost for ourselves. Rather, we should rejoice! Why? Because when we lose, we are gaining Christ. When we suffer joyfully the little things that let us down, we're able to be drawn more deeply into the heart of Jesus. We give everything up, so that we can love Him better.

But the heart of this message to the Philippians goes deeper. Are you ready to give up everything? Actually, you don't have to be ready. Jesus demands it of you, every day; but not for no reason. We don't just give up everything because we want to be recognized, or because we think that that is the right thing to do, or because we want people to see that we believe in Jesus, or because we want the world to know that being a Christian is the thing to do. All of those reasons could be right and good, but the real reason we surrender everything we've gained and choose to become a loser is because knowing Christ and being found in Him is worth more than anything. Ever. Paul knows this, and he wants the rest of the Church to know this, too. Nothing we have, do, or want could ever be worth more than knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, amen?

There's a song by Love & The Outcome called “Heart Like You”; some of its words go like this: “What could be worth more than You? What do I have I wouldn't lose? I give up the world to find my soul, pour out my life, give You control, I just wanna be what You want me to be, I just want a heart that's true, a heart like You....”

Let's go out there and show the world how to be the awesomest losers EVER.

God, I just want a heart like You. I give everything up, because I want to love You. I'm not afraid to lose everything, because I know that nothing could ever be better than gaining You. I'm not afraid to suffer for You, because I know that I am found in You. And I'm proud to be a loser for You.

Written by Caroline Andrews