Sometimes people ask if I have, or had at one time, a “life verse.”
I say no.
I’m not a “life verse” kind of person. In confronting this question I usually feel like I’m being asked a version of that recurring query from childhood, “Who is your hero?” I never had a hero–not in the form of a human being real or imagined, and not in the form of a Bible verse.
I did come close, though, when I worked at a Christian summer camp. Since I knew that it was quite pious to include references to Bible verses at the end of one’s letters, I would frequently add, after my signature, “Gal 6:11“.
I’m so pious.
But I might have to repent of my adamant declaration that I have no life verse. This thought occurred to me after posting yesterday about my kids’ desire to be in charge, to lead, to run out front.
Once upon a time, about five years ago, I was wrestling with the culmination of a series of deep disappointments. Things weren’t going as I had hoped and dreamed and planned. I was wrestling deeply with questions of what it looks like to be faithful to God in the face of doors that had been shut–but which I had only been attempting to walk through because I believed I was so called.
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In the middle of all that disappointment and discouragement, I read in Mark 10 (or perhaps Matthew 20), “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise power over them, but it shall not be so among you.”
That last bit: it shall not be so among you, οὐχ οὕτος ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν, has since summed up for me the difference between walking in the way of Christ and walking in the way of the world. Jesus goes on to say that the alternative vision of “greatness” he brings into the world is the one in which the Son of Man serves and gives his life as a ransom for many.
The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. So when confronted with visions of glory–either as a temptation or in the disappointment of not getting what I’d hoped, I hear those words in the back of my head: οὐχ οὕτος ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν. And I am reminded, as if against my will, of the way of Jesus.
A life verse has imposed itself upon me.
Despite my best efforts.
This has happened to me as well, the great plans I had (you know, include Jesus in my Nobel speech) or even the little plans were washed away. Now my struggle is, what plans do I make? What is my role? I am (mostly) willing to walk this path I did not choose, but not quite so sure how to proceed.
Reminds me of the David Brooks on the “summoned life”.
Thank you, Daniel. I too am not a “life verse” sort. And am trying to figure out where God is leading past doors he’s closed while I thought I was following his call.
Daniel, that’s good. Funny thing is, mine comes later in that verse -”did not come to be served, but to serve.” The downward path, humility rather thank exaltation. I, too, think it choose me in a strange sense. Agai, thank you.
I am not a life verse person either. People have “given” me a verse to hold onto, but I never understood it. I struggle because I have always believed that I need more than one verse, I need the whole picture!
However, in the wake of many life circumstances, I have found myself coming back to three phrases in Philippians.
το ζην Χριστος
ηγουμαι σκυβαλα
ινα Χριστον κερδησω
Self-denial that isn’t self-denial, but self-seeking joy in Christ. It is now my life’s pursuit.