Careful What You Grasp For

"You've been grasping for the wrong person's attention, Pilgrim."

I spoke these words to myself a few days ago, but it could equally have been the voice of God speaking to me.

Over the prior week I had engaged myself in an exercise which had the potential to gain me praise and admiration from other people.

The time spent in this exercise came largely from the more solitary moments of my day... from times when I would normally have been fellowship with God. Prayer had gone out the window during that time span.

It was only in the pause after I finally had everything ready that I gave greater heed to the voices of caution in my head.

They had been speaking all along. Asking me what I was after.

The results of my labors might have raised my reputation a bit... but at the cost of dinging someone else's reputation by the same amount.

The good advice of a good friend came rumbling though my head...
A question to ask yourself before entering into a conflict...

"What is it that you hope to gain from this exchange?"

I had no good answer to the question.

That's when I began to ponder what it was I had been grasping for, and why, and at what cost.

I had been grasping for the attention of strangers. To gain recognition at someone else's expense. At the cost of my grip on God and lost prayer time.

Not a good exchange, and I knew it. So I dropped the project.

That was where I left it a few days ago, but then this morning in two different devotionals I happened to flip through I ran (twice) into a reminder of the only verse in scripture where we're told what exactly Jesus himself grasped.

Or did not grasp, to be more specific.

Philippians 2:6-8
Who, being in very nature God,
   did not consider equality with God something to be grasped
rather, he made himself nothing
   by taking the very nature of a servant,
   being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
   he humbled himself
   by becoming obedient to death—
   even death on a cross!

Ouch.

I, a mere man, had been seeking to become something.

Jesus, God himself, sought to become nothing.

The passage preceding these verses only added salt to the wound.

Philippians 2:5
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

But note the verses following the passage.

Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
   and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father!

God is a God of ironies and paradoxes indeed.

I had been seeking significance, and it wasn't a good thing.

But Jesus had his eye on even greater significance, and it was good.

The difference is that that Jesus was willing to become the ultimate servant and to die on a cross in order to reach his goal.

I had not been engaged in that game.

Legendary golfer Bobby Jones said of Jack Nicklaus (after watching Nicklaus win the 1965 Masters) that he "played a game with which I am not familiar."

I might say the same of Jesus.

But if I'm after significance, it's encouraging to know that Jesus was too. The question that remains is...

Am I willing to get familiar with the game Jesus played?