The Lesson of Love: Chapter 9 - Growing By Abandonment
"One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus!" Philippians 3:13-14
Most people think that the way of successful living, is by acquisition, by getting things and keeping them, by accumulating and conserving. But it is by abandonment, by letting things go and leaving them behind--when they have fulfilled their purpose, that we really grow. Accumulation of worldly things, is not greatness. It is in being, not in having--that character consists.
Paul gives us in a remarkable sentence, a plan of life, a scheme of progress. He says it is by "forgetting the things which are behind--and stretching forward to things that are before," that we grow. As we ponder this, we see that this is the only true way to live. Childhood is very sweet and beautiful--but no one would want to stay a child always. The boy is not sorry when he feels himself growing into manhood. He seems to be leaving much behind--much that is amusing and attractive. Perhaps his mother grieves as she sees him losing one by one, the things she has always liked--his curls, his boyish ways, his delicate features, the qualities that kept him a child--and taking on elements of strength, marks of manhood.
But if he remained always a boy, a child with curls and dainty tastes, what a pitiful failure his life would be! He can press to the goal of perfection--only by putting away, letting go, leaving behind--the sweetness, the gentleness, the simplicity, the innocence of boyhood.
The same principle runs through all life. Manhood is stern, strong, heroic. It would seem that childhood is more beautiful. It is sweeter, daintier, more winsome. But who regrets passing from childhood's gentleness and attractiveness, to man's strength and ruggedness, and man's hard tasks?
Nazareth was easier by far to Jesus--than what came after--the homelessness, the long journeys, the enmities, the persecutions, the struggles, the sufferings. But when he left the carpenter shop and went to the Jordan to be baptized, thence to the wilderness to be tempted, and thence started on the way to his cross--was he sorry? No! He was eager to go forth from the quiet of his peasant home and his happy life among friends and neighbors in the little Galilean village, to enter upon the great work for which he had come into the world.
There are many intimations of this eagerness in the story of our Lord's life, as given in the gospels. He spoke of the baptism with which he must be baptized, and said that he was straitened until it would be accomplished. At another time he said: "We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; the night comes, when no man can work." At one time He and His disciples were on their way up to Jerusalem, Jesus pressed on before them so eagerly, that the disciples were amazed and awed, unable to understand His eagerness. He knew what awaited him at Jerusalem--but instead of holding back, He hastened on, impelled by a resistless desire to do His Father's will.
