Reflections on 40 years... Part 15. Jesus before ministry

‘I want to know Christ…’ (Phil. 3:10)
One day our ministries will be over. We may lose our health or even our husband or wife. What will we have then? Don’t live for your ministry – live for Jesus – that I might know him.

And so we come to the last of my reflections on my fathers reflections on 40 years in ministry – and it must end with this, that it really is all about Jesus.

Much of what sells itself as the gospel these days seems barely to give a nod to the author of that gospel. It is all health and wealth and wacky experiences and sorting out your self-image. Too much of it is about sticking a band-aid on the obvious problems of humanity rather than performing the radical heart surgery that is really required, but not always so obvious.

All of us can be drawn astray from a focus on the Savior to a focus on our ministry, and how well we are scoring compared to our peers. Too many of us get our sense of identity from what we do rather than from who we are.

Faithful under-shepherds of Christ do not fall into these errors. They preach Christ and follow Christ and keep their focus on Christ. They know that the measure that counts is not so much how we are measured by popular opinion in this life, but how we are measured by Christ in eternity.

We will be measured by what we treasure, so let us treasure Christ over all.