Losing All To Gain One

Years ago, I descended deep into a private zinc and lead mine, and had the privilege of collecting golden calcite crystals...beautiful keepsake specimens. I filled my bag with them, always looking for that one crystal, more perfect than the others.

Berry pickers rejoice in the rich fruit, but they keep reaching past the thorns for the bigger, juicier ones just beyond their reach.

Can you visualize a collector of gems? Before him is a pile of glittering stones. He rejoices in them, but suddenly he is confronted with a stone, so precious, so desirable, so valuable, that he would gladly give up his entire collection, to obtain that one perfect gem.

The apostle Paul had everything that the good Jew might have wanted: he came from a noble family, educated by the best of scholars, he was a Pharisee, and by all standards of "legal righteousness", he possessed everything!

But there came a time when he said, "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ...For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things,...in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him." (Phil. 3:7‑9) And he continues, "I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own....I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil.3:l2,l4)

Sometimes we say, "this one thing I do", but in reality we are saying: "these many things I dabble in". Aiming for greatness, financial success, earthly power, or any of these goals, can only be considered "baubles and trinkets", when held next to the goal of "living for Christ and his Kingdom".

Have we really focused in on "the Pearl of great price"? Sometimes, there is value in losing all things, in order to gain that one thing that is beyond earthly values. Paul discovered that in Jesus Christ, there was a power that not only "rolled away stones", (a resurrection power), but a power to live life at its fullest.

Don't be a collector of baubles. Find the ultimate treasure!