Pressing On Toward the Goal
Philippians 3:10-12 (New International Version)
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
As I crossed the borderland from night to day, from sleep to waking, the sound of the wind greeted my consciousness: blowing around the house; buffeting it, wind fingers prying at tiny gaps to rattle doors, rushing around the still sleeping village and the dark snow covered fields.
Later in the morning, I talked to my brother Robert, in England, and he told me that there too, it was a very windy day. I felt then as if it must be the same wind rushing around that tiny village and that the world was very small after all.
I love the wind. When I'm in, the sound of the wind outside only heightens my sense of comfort and well being at being inside. But the wind also has always reminded me of the temporary nature of physical life. Maybe it's because the wind seems almost to be an entity, rushing through the corridors of the centuries of time, with no regard for, or fear of, man or beast. Maybe it's because at the back of my mind I am reminded of the words of Psalm 103:15-16 (New International Version)
15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
So much of our thought and activity is fixed upon the here and now; the short time in this physical body. My prayer is that in the year ahead, God will give me more and more of an eternal perspective on life; his perspective.
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
As I crossed the borderland from night to day, from sleep to waking, the sound of the wind greeted my consciousness: blowing around the house; buffeting it, wind fingers prying at tiny gaps to rattle doors, rushing around the still sleeping village and the dark snow covered fields.
Later in the morning, I talked to my brother Robert, in England, and he told me that there too, it was a very windy day. I felt then as if it must be the same wind rushing around that tiny village and that the world was very small after all.
I love the wind. When I'm in, the sound of the wind outside only heightens my sense of comfort and well being at being inside. But the wind also has always reminded me of the temporary nature of physical life. Maybe it's because the wind seems almost to be an entity, rushing through the corridors of the centuries of time, with no regard for, or fear of, man or beast. Maybe it's because at the back of my mind I am reminded of the words of Psalm 103:15-16 (New International Version)
15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
So much of our thought and activity is fixed upon the here and now; the short time in this physical body. My prayer is that in the year ahead, God will give me more and more of an eternal perspective on life; his perspective.
Comments
And Amen! May the wind of the Spirit blow away the dust and cobwebs so we are like the flowers of the field, open, yearning for Him.
I needed that tonight. Bless you loads. Let the wind blow!
Rushing wind blow through this temple,
Blowing out the dust within,
Come and breathe your breath upon me,
I've been born again.