How a loss can be turned into a win for the future
Philippians 3:7-9 says, “Yet whatever gains I had; these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, [e] the righteousness from God based on faith.”
Someone recently emailed me a story about a former Japanese soldier, Hiro Onodo. Hiro Onodo was an intelligence officer who was assigned to the island jungles of the Philippines during World War II. What is noteworthy about Onodo is that some 29 years after the end of World War II he was still fighting and engaging in guerrilla warfare tactics on the island.
He utilized his survival skills to stay alive. Someone from the Philippine government encountered the soldier still wearing his tattered military uniform. Onoda was informed that the war had been over for 29 years. Onodo did not believe this news until his commanding officer was summoned to the island to dismiss him from duty.
Onodo makes me think of the wars and struggles that we fight within ourselves. These are civil wars that have been called and ended a long time ago, but we keep fighting them in our minds and hearts. These are struggles that we have with our past or some act for which we have lasting regret.
Some of these wars are even caused by our search for perfection and the inability to forgive ourselves for being human. These wars are also fought onthe battlefield of failing to have self-esteem when God has already made it abundantly clear that we are loved and accepted.
I want to suggest that some of us have been fighting wars that have been over for more than 29 years; we just need our commander to come and dismiss us from this assignment; to tell us the war is over.
Paul was imprisoned in a Roman prison engaging in some important self-reflection. If I were ananalyst, I would say that hewas a very self-aware individual. In his incarceration, Paul is giving thought to his former station in life
He was born and raised in the traditions of his people. He was trained in the law and had a zeal for persecuting the church. But as he thinks of his past life, he realizes that in addition to it is no longer his reality his gain is in Jesus Christ. Paul, I am suggesting, is winning even in prison because he has shed his former life like a snake sheds its skin.
Paul is now embracing what I call a Christological paradigm. Paul had status and privilege. Paul was trading in his person, and community privilege for the privileges of faith. What is behind Paul is forgotten. What is ahead of Paul is his new stake in Christ.
Some of us have trouble letting go of the person that we are because we have idealized it, or we believe that we must be perfect to escape. Brene Brown suggests that manyof us lack self-compassion. We try to be perfect in what we do and realize that such effort freezes and keeps us from acting on building our future.
Some of us believe that if we live perfect and act perfect, we will win the approval of others. To overcome perfectionism, we must be able to acknowledge our vulnerabilities, letting go of our shame. We must develop “shame resilience.” When we can have self-compassion and be more loving to ourselves, we can then embrace and live with our imperfections.
When we embrace our imperfections, we find courage, compassion, and connection. Be kind to yourself about the feelings that you have when you suffer, fail, or feel inadequate. Embrace your humanity and realize that you share in suffering and failure with the entire human family; you are no exception. Embrace your pain, your disappointments while having compassion for yourself.
Stop fighting the civil war within. Peace has been proclaimed. You are loved. You are accepted.
Ibram Kendi in a book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” has a chapter that is titled “Failure.” In it, he describes how early abolitionists taught African-Americans moving out of slavery that if they demonstrated good conduct (perfection) they would find acceptance in the larger white community. Therefore, many believed that if they simply conducted themselves in the right way it would free them from bondage and racism and discrimination.
What Kendi had to learn and what each one of us must embrace is that our acceptance is not based upon our perfection. Our acceptance is grounded in God’s willingness to accept us even with our imperfections and our existence in imperfect systems.
We cannot be perfect enough to merit God’s love. In fact, God made our imperfections; God knows our imperfections and God embraces us in our imperfections.
Losing our perfection and embracing our imperfection is winning by virtue of losing. God is calling you and me in times of transition and change to become the people that God has called into service. We find ourselves frozen, locked in a war with ourselves because we believe that we must be perfect to make a move, take a step.
Paul realized in his prison cell, that we are not called to perfection, our all is to obedience and faith. Placing our imperfections before God represents our embrace God’s perfecting love and purpose in our lives.
God is calling you and me to become our destiny. The thing is, we must let go of our past to embrace our future.
Amen