Looking Back
“I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
The first month of the year, January, has a very appropriate name. It comes from one of the gods worshipped by the ancient Romans. His name was Janus, and he was believed to be the keeper of doors. Because people enter and leave through doors, Janus began to be pictured with two faces looking in opposite directions at once, so that he could see both what had gone and what was coming. Thus January is the doorkeeper of our year, and we use it to look both backward and forward.
Paul, in this passage, is reviewing his life. He gives himself rather high marks for success in human terms, "in the flesh." He had been a strict Jew, zealous in persecuting Christians, blameless in observing the Law.
What report card would you give yourself for the year just past? How would “the world” rate you?
Paul makes one important point, however. None of these things are worthwhile if we do not know Christ Jesus as Lord. We all want to "get right with God," but it cannot happen without knowing Jesus. Now, as we end one year and begin another, is a good time to put past efforts aside and begin again with the grace of God.
For Reflection: What would God value from my past year?
A Prayer Seed:
God of the past, our times are in Thy hand; with us abide,
Lead us by faith to hope's true promised land; be Thou our guide,
With Thee to bless, the darkness shines as light,
And faith's fair vision changes into sight.
Hugh Thompson Kerr, 1917
