You have given up a great deal this pandemic year: COVID asked you to close your restaurants, avoid large gatherings, and keep your kids at home instead of school. So, the last thing you want to hear is what are you or will give up for Lent?
The Church is in the season of Lent—the 40 days of spiritual preparation for Easter. If you ask the typical man on the street or the average Christian in the church, they’d say Lent is a time of “giving up something”. According Ranker, the website where the public goes on line to rank things, the top-three things people give up are: fast-food, chocolate, and Facebook. The point is: the perception of Lent is about what you give up, not what you gain.
Eighty-five-year-old Lew Hollander knows something about giving up to gain. The 58-time Ironman triathlete holds the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest triathlete. After every race, he looks in the mirror and ask: "'Lew, did you do the best that you could today?" His goal is higher than just competing.
Without embracing the fullest meaning of Lent, it becomes a trivial pursuit where we relate the sacrifice of Christ to the giving up of sugar, sex or web surfing. Our goal needs to be higher.
Lent is more. It is reflection—a looking in; a self-examination our old condition of sin. Second, it is projection—a looking forward to gaining new possibilities in Christ’s resurrection. Lent is not just what you give up, but what you gain. What Lew does in the mirror is what Lent calls every Christian to do, not just for forty days, but daily—to reflect and project with the question, “Did I do my best today to attain the highest calling as a Christian.
Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul encouraged the Philippian Church, and you and I, to aim higher: to be a Lenten church who gives up to gain the highest. As he wrote from a Roman jail where he watched from his window, Olympic games, he gives us a three-part training regime to be Lenten Philippian Olympians. First, you must reject. Then you must project. Lastly, you must press. When you do, you gain the one thing as a Lenten Christian that you can’t get by just giving up beef, bread or beer.
First, reject the mess: 13 but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind…To gain the prize of the high calling of a Lenten Christian Church, you have to reject your unproductive past that stunts your growth. Paul did. He rejected powerless pedigrees, misplaced passions and self- centered performance. He was a Jew of Jews, a persecutor of the Church and an adherent of the Law. He looked inside and he chose to give all that up for a greater path. During your Lenten journey, not just of forty days, but a lifetime, look in the mirror and ask: What do I need to reject to gain the prize as a Christian.
Second, project, look forward to a more profitable future: 13b and reaching forward to what lies ahead… Paul did. What laid ahead was the power of resurrection and suffering according to verse 10b. He gained the divine power to change into something new, not just for the “here after,” but also for the “here and now”; to walk in the newness of life according to Romans 6:4. He also gained the power of suffering. Paul believed, like James, you can count it joy when your faith is tested because it produces endurance.
Lastly, you’ve got to press. 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. To press means to pursue (dioko). It’s an action in the present and is on-going. Paul was continually pressing in word, worship and work according to Romans 12:1&2, presenting himself a living sacrifice pleasing to God.
There you go. If you want to be a Lenten Philippian Olympian, reject your self-serving past, project—look forward—to a powerful life even in suffering, and press, pursue God to please God. That is the high calling of God in Christ. You can’t get the “gold” by just giving up Twinkies, television, or Twitter.
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