MPC LENTEN DEVOTIONS

Paul’s language in this passage brings to mind the image of a race and of a competitor waiting for the starting gun to go off so they can go for the prize. I am not a racer, but I enjoy watching a lot of racing events. There are a number of reasons why individuals may enter a race. For many, their goal is to win and set records. Others race to achieve a personal best, or simply to be able to say they did it. What matters to some is not winning, but finishing.

Paul is not an athlete. He sees himself in a different kind of race, and he is in it to win it. He tells us in Philippians 3:13 that he is ‘forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” He is focused on the finish line. Paul presses on “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” But what is his race? What is his goal? To answer this, we must look a few verses earlier in the chapter. Paul has given up everything in order to gain Christ and his righteousness, to know the power of his resurrection, to share in his suffering and resurrection (Philippians 3:7-11). Then he invites us in 3:17 to join him, to imitate him in pursuit of this goal. And the prize is not earthly—it is heavenly.

The Lenten season is a time for each of us to reflect on our kingdom calling. What is it we are striving for? What is the goal we are straining to reach? Is it “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” or something for our own glory? Are we looking behind or striving toward the prize? If we’re not striving forward, how do we get into this race and press toward the goal?