Paul open Philippians three with the following phrase “ I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”
The other day I was rummaging around my shop and came all the trophies I won in his years of showing animals and other competitions . There they were neatly packed in a box—labeled Jason’s awards.
I thought of the blood, sweat, and tears that had gone into gaining those awards, yet now they set slightly dusty in the darkness of a box, their only real value was to me for sentimental purposes.
It reminded me of a poem I had to read as a kid by Shel Silverstein called “Hector the Collector.” It describes all the things that Hector collected over the years. He “loved them more than shining diamonds, loved them more than glistenin’ gold.” Then Hector called to all his friends, “Come and share my treasure trunk!” And all the people “came and looked and called it junk.”
So it will be at the end of our lives. All our possessions—the things we’ve spent a lifetime working for—will be nothing but junk and we’ll know that the best things in life are not things. The best thing in life is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ followed by our relationships with others.
We can have the right perspective now, as Paul did. “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”
