Colossians 3:1-4 – Losing Ourselves

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV)


Our personal pursuits are only as valid as who they're really in pursuit of.

Revisiting this one in the spirit of a new understanding. It gets really easy to fall into the habit of living our lives for ourselves, even if under the pretense that we're "living for ourselves, for Christ." There's no such thing. I become angry with God when He takes away something from me that brings me happiness, which is evidence that I lost sight of what I'm after.

What's our end goal here? Let's use prosperity gospel as an example to highlight how we answer that question often times. Practicing that is often out of the pursuit of money, happiness, love. As long as your faith is strong enough, it's yours. How ironic, that a strong "faith" supposedly comes from the desire for the created, not the Creator. I've heard it said that a big issue with prosperity gospel is not that they expect too much from God. It's that they expect too little. Christians over the years have gotten so caught up in things that God can use for His purpose, that we've forgotten to live for His purpose at all. I'm not much better – neither are you. I have so many "sub-objectives" that I lose sight of the main objective all the time. The end goal is not respect. The end goal is not marriage. The end goal is not even happiness. The end goal is glorifying and declaring Christ through all of these things, should we get them. That's our purpose – our reason for being created; we have no right to dictate what channels we will have to give glory to God, just so that we can enjoy them in the meantime.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing things that we enjoy or feel called to. We can still pursue things of the world in our effort to point them towards Christ. At the same time, how we pursue those things, how we use them, and the way that we react if they're taken from us will expose where we've placed our goals every. single. time.

I won't get frustrated with myself, that's not productive. You shouldn't either. Feeling grief for things that we're passionate about is completely normal. But passion can be worldly (3:5 – ESV). It can be a side effect of enjoying what we've been given, but we're misguided if we consider an emotion that we can barely control to always be from above. We're called to set our minds elsewhere (3:2), and allow that to carry us through the pursuit of all of the goals that God may call us to. Keep your personal goals, but only when you pursue them under the Truth. We technically have a life of our own, but it's hidden with Christ (3:3). In other words, our subjective goals are invisible – covered up by the objective truth of God. Keep the subjective, when living in the objective.

When all of our goals stay consistent with a core pursuit to glorify God, we're losing sight of who we are. Who says that's a bad thing? My life is Christ (3:4), so I should much rather lose sight of who I am, than lose sight of who He's always been. This won't be the last time that I struggle with this. Thank God that He never averts His gaze, even when I do just that.

"Keep my focus steady. Let me lose myself to gain You."

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