Twice in one month?

No, that last post was a poem I wrote years ago finally reappearing... this is fresh though.

I was reading in Philippians 2 yesterday reading that passage where Paul tells believers to be humble. He says stuff like "Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit." and "consider others more significant than yourselves." As I read that yesterday morning, I took it in stride as just a piece of a long list of areas of my heart that need work. But as I continued reading a couple lines down, I got to this part where Paul says to do this stuff so that we can be like Jesus. He made himself a servant. He was God and gave it up to be a man. One who would die for those who followed him for a few years and then ditched him when things took a turn. And it occurred to me. The essence of the believer's life is not to regain what we've lost, or even to hold onto the things that we have. The point is to give ourselves away for the sake of others as much as we possibly can, maybe even our entire lives. I'm not talking like Jimmy Stewart "It's a Wonderful Life" type giving away your life (although that's one of my favorite movies of all time). I'm talking your friends walk away from you when you're about to die type of life. Paul says be like Jesus. I have to confess that it's been only recently that I've started to take that advice with any weight, and I hope that one day I will take it with greater serious that I do now. Until then I'm eternally grateful that the man I want to be like made himself lower than me.