Though we might wish to be upbeat about 2010, it’s hard to ignore the facts: it was a year of loss, beginning with a massive earthquake in Haiti—our hemisphere’s poorest country—killing 250 thousand and leaving millions homeless. Only a month later, another earthquake jolted Chile, causing the death of 775 and $30 billion in damage. In April the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion killed 11 men and caused unknown billions of $ in damage to local communities and businesses and unknown loss of marine life. Meanwhile the recession was unabated; more people lost their jobs as unemployment hovered at 10%. And finally, a loss to our nation’s financial health as the national debt doubled in size to $14 trillion.
But it wasn’t all loss. Probably, the most inspiring event of the year, if not the decade, was the dramatic October rescue of the Chilean miners from a collapsed coal mine. It was a ‘gain’ for humanity—a tribute to the abilities of men.
Gains and losses: that’s how man measures his years. So once again I am reminded by Watchman Nee: “In spiritual matters, we measure ourselves not in terms of gains, but in losses,” of course referring to Jesus' warning: “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it” (Mat. 10:39). So the question I ask myself today is “how much of ‘me’ did I lose this year?” Is there less of ‘Greg’ and more of Jesus? And that is how I will judge 2010.
This posting seems to equate earthly loss with "rubbish", based on the Apostle Paul's similar assessment. I suspect you came to that conclusion as he did, by weighing the loss of "everything" against the gain of "knowing Christ Jesus my Lord". That is why Paul could say "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain". When severely tested, the Apostle lived a cling-free life. Some, such as I, are given extra years to grow up and learn the meaning of that goal, thus to make HIm preeminent. Thus far I have only taken sips from that cup.
ReplyDeleteWell, the losses I speak of in this post are very real losses. If we focus on those we will be full of despair. Paul spoke of his 'gains' as losses (rubbish). I am making the point that the world may see this year of loss as a 'bad' year (which is certainly true) but in the spiritual matter we would see our losses (death to self) as quite a blessing. It's not possible to make a correlation here--only a slight comparison of the values of natural men and spiritual men. There's really no such thing as a bad year for us believers. they are all good by God's promise.
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